HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Gil, Castle Park Win Battle With Hilltop After Silva Leaves Game

With one swing in the bottom of the first inning, Castle Park’s Vico Moreno managed to steer some attention--albeit briefly--from the ballyhooed pitching showdown between longtime friends Benji Gil and Jose Silva, two of the highest-rated high school baseball prospects in the nation.

Moreno, a 5-foot-6 right-handed hitting center fielder, drove an 0-2 fastball from Silva over the right-field fence for the only run Gil and the Trojans (10-3, 1-0) needed Wednesday in a 4-0 Metro Conference victory over sixth-ranked Hilltop (6-2-1, 1-1).

Right-handers Gil and Silva, who drew dozens of scouts and about 500 fans to Castle Park High, provided folklore material for a few innings. Both had excellent stuff, and Moreno’s somewhat accidental homer--his first of the year--looked as if it would be the only run of the game.

But two pitches into the fourth inning of a brilliant outing, Silva pulled himself. An inning before, a muscle near his right elbow tightened and began causing him pain.

Silva said he didn’t think the injury was serious, and that he probably could have continued, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

In the third inning, Silva (2-1) had recorded his seventh, eighth and ninth strikeouts.

“Too bad he got hurt,” Bob Korzep said, “he could have had 21 (strikeouts).”

Korzep, an apparent admirer, is Castle Park’s coach.

Gil was equally impressive but started a bit slower.

After 1 2/3 innings without a strikeout, Gil (3-2) notched 13 the rest of the way and finished with a five-hitter. With the shutout, Gil, who led the county in 1990 with a 0.52 earned run average, lowered his 1991 ERA to 1.11. In 25 1/3 innings, he has 49 strikeouts.

Silva has a county-leading 56 strikeouts in 31 innings.

“It would have been interesting to see if that one run would have held up,” Korzep said. “The way those kids were throwing . . .”

The way Gil continued to throw, picking up momentum as the game wore on, Hilltop stood little chance with even a one-run deficit.

Three Castle Park runs in the fourth inning--the result of one hit, three walks, a balk and an error--all but wrapped up the victory.

How good was Gil? Not one Hilltop batter managed to pull a ball off him until Sergio Guzman’s single to left in the sixth-inning.

How good was Silva? Gil, one of the top hitters in the county with a .594 average, struck out twice against him. Gil said the last time he struck out twice in a game was the first game this season. “Before that, it had been just about never.”