Lara’s slam propels Everett past non-league Charlestown to complete comeback effort

After beating Medford, the Crimson Tide boys prep to host Somerville later today at Glendale Park

  As the calendar is about to flip to May, the Everett High School baseball team (3-4) split two games during school vacation week – against Greater Boston League (GBL) rival Revere and non-league Charlestown – to remain close to the .500 mark. The Everett boys lost to the Patriots, 8-2, before edging the host Townies, 10-9, and then on Monday, April 24, they won another high-scoring affair, this time against host Medford at Playstead Park, 16-15.

  The Crimson Tide were unable to dig themselves out of a first inning hole against visiting Revere, trailing 3-0, even before they had an opportunity to come to the plate. Pitcher Matt Turilli suffered the loss after giving up six hits and five earned runs over four innings. The offense was only able to muster two hits throughout the game. David Saia and Albert Santana supplied that offense.

  “Again, our defense let us down making four errors,” said coach Joel Levine. “We were unable to come up with that one big hit when we had runners in scoring position and the game was still on the line. Striking out 13 times does not put any pressure on anybody’s defense to make plays, and that is something we really need to get better at if we are going to string together a few wins in the coming weeks.”

  Levine’s preaching started to echo through the roster during the come-from-behind win against Charlestown. His squad was able to show some mental toughness while battling back to win that Charlestown thriller. They jumped out to a 2-1 lead on an RBI single by Santana in the fourth inning. An RBI single by Saia (2-4, 3 RBI, 3 runs scored) and an assortment of Charlestown miscues extended the lead to 5-1.

  However, the Townies were able to not only battle back themselves, but also take a 9-5 lead in the fifth after everything went wrong for Everett on defense, according to Levine. That was the way the game remained until Alex Lara came up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh. Everett trailed at the time, 9-6.

  Lara, who was the winning pitcher after going 2.2 scoreless innings, jumped on the first pitch and belted the go-ahead grand slam. Omar Marshall (1-3, 2 runs scored, 4.1-innings in relief, four earned runs), Nordeivy Santana (1-4 2 RBI), Nick Gilbert (2-4) and Isaiah Goffigan (1-2 1 run scored) also contributed mightily to the winning cause.

  “It was nice to get back into the win column with such an exciting finish,” said Levine. “Being mentally tough is one of the points we try to emphasize throughout the course of the season. It would have been easy for our kids to lay down after such a tough fifth inning, but they battled. Everyone on the team contributed from top to bottom, and then Alex came up to get that big hit when our team needed it the most.”

  After the triumph over Medford, the Crimson Tide took on host Malden two days later (after press deadline). They then returned home to host Somerville at Glendale later today (April 28), starting at 4 p.m.