By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With top seed in the upcoming City Tournament hanging in the balance, the East High baseball team looked to turn the tables on RCAC rival School of the Arts (SOTA), Wednesday.
Angel Silva hurled five-plus innings, and the offense put together a big second as the Eagles downed SOTA, 9-5.
Silva, who took the loss when SOTA downed East 11-1 on April 22nd, struck out six and walked three over 5.2 innings.
“I know all he wanted was a chance for redemption and a chance to be able to come back,” East head coach Kyle Crandall said. “He was pitching a great game for four innings against SOTA the first time at our place, and the wheels kinda fell off. This was a gutsy performance by him.”
Silva was at his best in the fourth inning when he responded to a three-run SOTA third.
“He keeps his composure at all times,” Crandall added. “I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen him lose his composure. He’s one of those kids when the pressure mounts, he seems to rise up.”
After giving up a pair of hits along with a walk and a hit batsman, Silva struck out the first two he faced in the fourth and ended the inning with an infield pop up.
“I started to notice after a couple of hitters that they wouldn’t go for the outside, so I tried to throw it inside,” the junior right-hander said. “It’s a great feeling to be able to throw strikes and get my team the win.”
Silva got all the run support he needed in the second when East sent 14 batters to the plate and scored eight runs.
“When you bat through the lineup what that says to me is that the bottom of our lineup has really come a long way,” Crandall noted. “At the beginning of the year, those were some automatic outs. Now those are no longer automatic outs.”
Willito Soto sparked the outburst with a two-run single. Alex Figueroa, Tyrone Roundtree and Silva followed with consecutive run-scoring base hits.
“We got some timely hits,” Crandall stated. “The kids were patient at the plate. They were really making some smart decisions in terms of laying off pitches out of the zone, protecting on close pitches.”
Michael Conrow came on in relief with runners on the corners in the sixth and retired the first batter he faced to escape the jam. The freshman right-hander worked a scoreless seventh as East (10-4) won its fifth straight game.
“This is the biggest game he has been brought into to have to pitch,” Crandall said of his reliever. “He’s really developed into our No. 2 pitcher as a freshman. It’s fun to see the potential that these kids have.”
Silva finished 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Edgar Diaz was 2-for-2 with two walks, two RBI and a run scored.
Brennen Johnson paced the SOTA offense going 2-for-4 with four RBI. Zach Parson went 2-for-4 with a win scored. Ross Janezic was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored for the Silverhawks.
“SOTA had all kinds of opportunities,” Crandall said. “It’s kinda scary sometimes. You put up that eight-spot in the second inning, and you get really excited about it. If you don’t score more runs after that, the other team starts whittling away, momentum shifts and pressure starts to turn. You want to score those runs at the beginning, but you want to keep bringing it on.”
East will have home-field advantage in next week’s tournament.
“That one feels really good,” Silva said. “Being able to take the win back from the last game where they mercied us. It feels really good to come to their home field and take the win.”
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