Jackson Muscles Out 11-2 Victory Over Mater East

It’s the type of story every player would love to build their legacy around.

Up until a few games ago, Miami Jackson senior Ibrahim Silwany was the team’s left fielder and leadoff hitter.

But after being called into emergency relief pitching duty recently, he has now emerged as the team’s ace.

Making his third start of the season Tuesday at Charles Hadley Park, the Generals rewarded Silwany with his first victory on the mound with an 11-2 win over host Mater Academy East.

The senior right-hander was first summoned to the mound this season during a bases-loaded jam with no outs, and after escaping that inning unscathed, he has come full circle to lead the team’s pitching staff.

On Tuesday, Silwany went the distance for the win, throwing 115 pitches in the complete-game effort as he held the Scorpions (8-4) to two hits and five walks. He finished with five strikeouts while improving to 1-2 overall.

“It’s a great team atmosphere. Even when I was kind of shaky they were there to back me up, telling me to stay in it,” said Silwany. “We’re scrappy and we want to show people we’re not there to lose. We are there to win and play the game the way it is supposed to be played.”

Under 21-year old, first-year Manager Julio Mendoza the Generals (6-9) have developed a hard-nose style of play described simply as “heart and hustle”, and the team has now won four of its last five games.

“Coach Julio is a very young, talented coach. I saw a lot of enthusiasm on his part in getting his team ready,” said Scorpions Manager Laz Abreu.

After opening with a tough schedule in the first half of the season, Coach Mendoza feels it is a different story for his team heading down the stretch.

“It’s a bunch of what we call ’50-50 games’, against schools that are traditionally still much better than Jackson, but we like to think we took the next step and we’re at their level,” said Mendoza. “It was a very proving game for us today. We went out there and we won the game. We’ve been saying we think we’re that good and we went out there and did it.”

The Generals wasted little time on Tuesday, jumping to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning in a game they never trailed in.

“Off the bat Jackson had more rhythm, more anticipation to play,” Abreu said. “It’s one of those games in the season where we came out sloppy, and I’m not mad at our team because I know we’re better than that. But our kids came in here and thought they had it in the bag and it was the other way around.”

Leadoff hitter Francisco Brenes singled off Scorpions starter Andy Escono to open the contest, then stole second and scored on an RBI single from Michealangelo Penas.

Just like that, the Generals were off and running.

Jackson swiped seven bases in all, while being aggressive on the base paths and at the plate with hit-and-runs and a suicide-squeeze attempt. It is this style of play that the players have bought into under their new manager, and Tuesday was an example of what the results can be.

“We put it all on the field,” said Silwany. “We don’t want to say ‘what if I dove for that ball?’ or ‘what if I made that play?’. We want to say ‘I dove for that ball, and I made that play’.”

The players admit it makes games more exciting for them, while Coach Mendoza knows it is working to exhaust the other teams.

“That’s the way we play the game here,” Mendoza said. “We’re very young, and even the older guys are inexperienced. So they’re getting to the point in the season where they are just playing the game. They’re not worried anymore.”

Jackson put the game away with a four-run third inning.

Penas and Jomilson Alvarez both walked leading off, and both stole a base to get into scoring position before both also then came home when Brayan Ruiz reached on an error.

The catcher Ruiz gave way to courtesy runner Josheph Palomino, who scored the team’s next run when Dariel Santana also reached on an error.

Silwany then aided his own cause with an RBI single to bring home Santana and push the Generals lead to 5-0.

The Scorpions answered back with a pair of runs with their swings in the bottom of the third.

Shortstop Renny Tolentino drew a two-out walk, and then immediately was able to race all the way around the bases when Jeter Downs followed by crushing the ball to left field for an RBI triple.

The Generals then reached into the vault in attempting the “hidden-ball trick” to try and pick off Downs at third, but he was allowed to trot home to make it 5-2 after the pitcher was called for a balk for staying on the rubber during the play.

Jackson padded its lead with runs in each of the final three innings, highlighted by a triple off the bat of Brayan Ruiz in which he was able to complete his trip around the bases on a throwing error on the play.

Escono suffered his first loss on the season to fall to 4-1 overall. The righty was a workhorse for the team, going four and two-third innings while allowing three earned runs and recording five strikeouts.

“Our pitching was OK, but defensively we got lazy and on our base-running we made some mental mistakes,” Abreu said. “The only thing we can do is turn the page and move on. I think the guys know they can make it pretty far this year, if we play to the best of our capability. Today just wasn’t our day.”

After getting on the board to pull within three runs in the third, the Scorpions found few chances the rest of the way against Silwany.

Silwany got two outs on two pitches to start the bottom of the fourth, as Stanlyn Esubio caught a line drive to left field and Aramis Montenegro followed by snagging a scorching liner to third base on the first pitch to Paul Gomez.

Silwany escaped the inning on just seven pitches, which aided his complete-game bid. After escaping a bases-loaded jam unscathed in the fifth inning, he settled in to retire seven of his final eight batters.

Yet he was quick to point out an important factor in the team’s victory.

“We didn’t have any errors today,” said Silwany. “Our defense is getting a lot better.”

The ace had his own hand in that defensive effort, as he snared a line-drive that was drilled right back at him to record the game’s final out.

“A strikeout is a good exclamation point to end it, but that was like ‘wow!’,” Silwany joked afterwards.

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