Somerset Key wins first game on the diamond

Posted on 18 April 2019 by LeslieM

By Gary Curreri

Somerset Key Academy [which is where Zion Lutheran used to be in Deerfield] recently won its first baseball game in school history.

Somerset Key picked up an 18-4 win over Donna Klein for the first victory in school history. Shaq Rolle clubbed a home run, while Paul Rolle had an inside-the-park home run for the Lions. The winning pitcher was Paul Rolle.

“It was very cool to pick up that win against Donna Klein,” said Silvia, a fixture with the Deerfield Beach Little League program, who has also coached high school baseball throughout the county. He has coached high school and travel baseball for 31 years.

“We put the schedule together late and had like three weeks to practice before our first game. It was a really big deal. It was a huge win. You can only practice so much,” Silvia added. “It is a different experience when the umpires say, ‘play ball.’ As a coach, practice is my time and when the umpires are there, it is the players’ time. They show us what they learned. It was a lot of fun.”

The Lions are currently 2-2 this season with a game scheduled for Thursday against Atlantic Christian at 4 p.m. They also beat Somerset Miramar and lost to Highlands Christian, and dropped a 5-4 decision against Sheridan Hills.

“We were leading in the last inning and gave it away,” Silvia said. “My closer couldn’t throw strikes and we lost it. We could easily be 3-1 right now. It’s okay because we are learning.”

Silvia had to be prodded to take over the program. He was an assistant coach at Northeast High School last season and was planning on taking the year off — until six members of Somerset Keys came to his house and sat in his living room and convinced him to coach because they didn’t have a coach.

“After the AD and a couple of dads called, they asked me to help out,” Silvia said. “I couldn’t say no. The kids said they would do all of the work. I just wanted them to learn the game of baseball, have fun and grow the program. They are having fun and have won games. With our loss to Highlands Christian, I told the boys that was a good, established program and we hope to be there in a few years.”

Silvia hoped to have a middle school team too, but there weren’t enough players to form a middle school team, so several of those players are on the varsity. They have just three seniors on the team and the rest are underclassmen and middle schoolers.

“I didn’t really know what to expect because I am used to coaching the bigger schools and the travel teams,” he said. “We had tryouts and I had kids coming out in shorts and sneakers and didn’t know what to expect.

We had kids falling off at the beginning of the year because they couldn’t handle the conditioning. These kids are ball players. We have 10 games left and I am hoping to win out.”

Because they are a first-year, independent team, they will not compete in the playoffs this year.

“We have some really good younger players, so I am really encouraged,” Silvia said. “Since they never had a program there before, they would lose players to the neighboring schools and we wanted to keep them there. We want to put the baseball program on the map.”

The team is composed of Shaq Rolle, Zack Johnson, Paul Rolle, Kobe Rolle, Rogelio Vargas, Janelle Calvet, Sergio De Armas, Armari Santana, Marcus Febuzzi, Seidel De Armas, Jeb Yanto, Matt DeOlivera, Jesus Garcia, David Davila, Trent Hussy and Nate Reid.

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