By TJ HATHAWAY
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Michael Salina showed up in a big way for the No.2 seed Webster Schroeder Warriors in their 2-0 win over the No. 3 seed Irondequoit Eagles. The right-handed senior threw for a season-high 13 strikeouts. He had a perfect game through five and two-third innings and ended up throwing a complete game.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” said Salina. “Wanted to attack the hitters, and trust my catcher, trust my coaches, trust my defense and everyone, all of my teammates.”
Salina was in rhythm from the start, picking up a pair of strikeouts in each of the first four innings. He did not allow a batter to reach on base until late in the 6th inning.
Strikeout #8 for Salina. @ITown_Baseball 0, @BaseballWebster 2 going to the bottom of the 4th. pic.twitter.com/kcr9iFFUIH
— TJ Hathaway (@tj_hathaway) May 27, 2022
“Mike shows up on game day,” said Schroeder head coach Matt Knight. “Today, he was a pitcher, he wasn’t just a thrower. He’s been working on that, and today he showed up in this game.”
In the late innings, Irondequoit began to put pressure on Salina and the rest of the Schroeder defense. In the sixth inning, a drawn walk by Max Spitz followed by a single and stolen base by Brody Froman put two runners in scoring position. In the seventh, singles by Connor Gresens and Brian Tisa combined with a past ball put Irondequoit in the same spot as the previous inning. Salina stayed confident, and ended up getting out of these innings unscathed.
“I just told myself to lock in and relax.” said Salina. “Play my game, pitch my game. I said I got this and that I have confidence in my defense, so I just pitched.”
Salina makes the play on the safety squeeze attempt to keep @ITown_Baseball off the board. 2 outs, still 2-0 @BaseballWebster in the top of the 7th pic.twitter.com/Tf2neVri49
— TJ Hathaway (@tj_hathaway) May 27, 2022
After Schroeder got into these jams, Knight went out twice and addressed Salina.
“Just basically I calmed him down. I said let’s go pitch-to-pitch, not get too high and not get too low and just stay in the middle.”
Schroeder got its 2-0 lead in the second inning, when a two-run single from Jonathan Maier scored both Matthew Salina and Kaleb Juliano.
Jonathan Maier rips a single into left field that scores two, and advances to second off an error. @BaseballWebster takes a 2-0 lead late in the 2nd inning. pic.twitter.com/lRMRxtwTgv
— TJ Hathaway (@tj_hathaway) May 28, 2022
“That was huge.” Knight explained. “We had other opportunities where if we could have gotten a hit we could have broken it open, but Irondequoit is a tough team.”
Maier finished 1-for-2 at the plate with two RBI for Schroeder. Jack Cannon had a first-inning single. Tyler Stack also singled in the first. Matt Salina and Kaleb Juliano had base-hits in the second inning.
Irondequoit saw singles from Brody Froman, Connor Gresens, and Brian Tisa. Connor Gresens pitched three innings in relief for the Eagles, and struck out three batters without allowing a hit.
Connor Gresens picks up the strikeout to end the inning for @ITown_Baseball. Game is still 2-0 @BaseballWebster heading to the 5th. pic.twitter.com/TnBj2hfIBd
— TJ Hathaway (@tj_hathaway) May 27, 2022
“It feels great, you know.” Salina said. “We have to go one step at a time in practice, and try to win it all. Got to lock in and get ready, prepare, and be ready for Tuesday.”
“We set this as a goal in the front of the season, we knew our league play was gonna be extremely tough”, Knight described. “Playing in (Monroe County) Division 1 with Fairport, Victor, RH, Hilton, those five tough teams it was a battle every single game and we knew if we just improved throughout the season, that we’d have a chance.”
Webster Schroeder will play No. 5 seed and cross-town rival Webster Thomas in the Section V Class A1 championship, on Tuesday, May 31st at 4:30 PM at Frontier Field.
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