Alicea hurls no-hitter; East opens RCAC play with win

By PAUL GOTHAM

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — One year after advancing to the Section Five finals, pre-season goals for Kyle Crandall’s East High Eagles include winning a four straight Rochester City Athletic Conference (RCAC) title and trying to make some noise in the Class AA sectionals.

On Wednesday, the Eagles took a firm first step in the direction of meeting those objectives.

Joel Alicea hurled a five-inning no-hitter in his first varsity start, and East cruised to a 10-0 win over the NE Douglass Panthers in the RCAC opener for both teams at East High.

“Joel was a great pitcher last year on the JV team,” Crandall said. “He came up this year. We’re still trying to figure out where guys are going to fit in terms of an actual rotation, but decided to give him the start today.”

The right-hander struck out 13, walked two and did not allow a ball out of the infield.

“It’s encouraging because we’ve put a lot of focus on pitching in the off-season,” Crandall noted. “I thought we would do more of a pitcher by committee. Obviously, when someone has a no-hitter you leave him in.”

Alicea fanned seven of the last eight batters he faced.

“He did a good job of keeping his pitch count down throughout the game. He actually got stronger as the game went on. He threw 75 pitches. That was a good performance and a good opportunity for him in his first game on the mound.”

Eric Maldonado delivered a pair of RBI hits in the first inning as East batted around.

“I thought my kids had some really good plate appearances. They were patient, swinging at strikes and not swinging at stuff out of the zone. Stay disciplined the whole game. I was overall very pleased with their approaches at the plate.”

Lemuel Matos, Tyrone Roundtree Jr.and John Segarra also supplied run-scoring hits in the first frame.

East finished 20-3 (18-2 regular season) and earned the top seed in 2016 Class AA sectionals. The Eagles advanced to the championship before losing to eventual state finalist Webster-Schroeder.

“Our goal, all we have talked about from the beginning, is to get better and better and hopefully by the end of the season we’re peaking and playing some really good baseball.”

East hosts School of the Arts on Thursday.

OTHER GAMES

Greece Olympia 7 Franklin 1

Johnny Carson threw a complete game for the win, striking out eight while giving up one earned run for Olympia (1-0). Angel Perez collected two hits, two RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. Jack Berbert was 2-2 at the plate with a walk, stolen base and run scored. Joey Alphonse collected his varsity hit doubling home two runners. Olympia hosts Brockport, Thursday 3/30.​ Franklin is 0-1.