Junior Peyton Silverman stared down her illustrious opponent: a professional softball player.
The count stood at 3-2. Silverman wound and fired. The ball buzzed toward the plate, a neon-yellow blur that cut sharply away from the batter. The hitter flails at the pitch, but it meets the glove with a satisfying “pop” for a third strike. Silverman’s strikeout victim scurries back to the dugout. The pitcher from Connecticut was cruising through an all-star lineup, and only allowed one hit that day during an invitational game in Georgia.
When spectators watch Silverman play softball, they may believe that the game comes effortlessly to her, but she has had to work hard. “It’s not all easy for me,” said Silverman. “People think, because I have a scholarship, that it all comes easy but it doesn’t. I have to work [hard]. It’s not just given to me.”
Despite her highly-praised talent, there have been rough patches in Silverman’s early career. She said these took toughness and motivation to power through and she is no stranger to being challenged.
“I’ll never forget my teammate Gianna,” she said. “I grew up playing with her sister, and Gianna would always laugh at me and make fun of me because I wasn’t very good at anything besides pitching. She motivated me to become, not just a pitcher, but to work on the all-around aspect of the game. Without her, I don’t think I would have ever spent seven hours a week at practices trying to be as good of a fielder and hitter as they all are.”
In addition to playing for the South Windsor Bobcats, Silverman is a member of the Rhode Island Thunder Gold, a showcase team that travels the country hoping to be recruited by colleges.
Much like her teammate Gianna, Silverman says that her Rhode Island teammates also questioned her placement among them, and she needed to gain their respect to gain their support. However, despite going up against doubt, Silverman refers back to how her father, who taught her softball, prepared her for such situations. He told her that questioning and expectations would increase as her skill improved. “Something he always told me was, there’s always going to be adversity and people will try to bring me down,” said Silverman. “He told me I just need to keep my head up [and to] keep working.”
Her first few outings with Rhode Island were not ones she could dwell on as she gave up close to seven home runs in one weekend to New Jersey. However, it was not a weekend that would hold her back.
The following week, Thunder was in Colorado and once again, Silverman found herself in a critical situation. With the game tied and the bases loaded, she struck out all three batters to escape the jam. “I learned that I couldn’t worry about impressing the coaches and I couldn’t think about a negative outcome,” she said. “I learned to just trust myself and do what I know I can do.”
Silverman is not one to back down when it comes to capitalizing on her skills. “The only thing I’ve really done to be where I am is work hard. There’s really no other way to do it,” she said. “I pitch 900 pitches each week, run at least three times a week, work four-hour practices once or twice a week in Rhode Island, and one pitching lesson every week or every other week.”
Silverman’s battle with high expectations has strengthened her, and her South Windsor teammates and coaches have taken notice.
“She’s a strong player, [who is] very dedicated to softball,” says teammate Alex Goslin. “She makes it really hard on the other team to score.”
Senior teammate Lina Nguyen described what the opposition has to face when up against Silverman. “She throws really hard, which a lot of people struggle with in general,” she said. “One of her favorite pitches is her curve ball. It has great motion, and a lot of girls get jammed up on it.”
“[She’s] impressive,” adds senior Rebecca Rewinski. “Especially last year [when] she was only a sophomore. People didn’t expect that from her.”
At the conclusion of her sophomore year, Silverman walked away with a 15-5 record along with an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 1.09. She struck out 43% of the batters she faced, ending with 251 strikeouts. Numbers like this earned Silverman All-State and All-CCC honors. This season she tallied four consecutive shutouts.
Coach Mandy Roczniak praised Silverman’s uniqueness and noted her expectations going into junior year. “She has a good demeanor and a steady presence. You can’t really see if she’s flustered or not,” she said. “[Silverman’s talent] is no longer a secret. She’s gotten better each year. She just needs to focus on not putting excessive pressure on herself,” Roczniak said.
Her relentless attitude towards improvement is backed by her intense thinking about each opponent. “My mindset going into games is that each batter I face is a top hitter in the country,” said Silverman. “Take the game pitch-by-pitch and always have a short memory, no matter what happens. You can never take a pitch off. No matter who we are playing it is always important to ‘respect all, fear none.’”
Silverman’s dream has always been to play for Team USA, however, she realized that, as her talent evolved, her play has additional potential. “Everyone who supported me always said I could go as far as I wanted in the game,” she said. “Even at 10 years old, my first pitching coach would tell me he knew, if I worked hard, I could go Division I.”
Such an opportunity came early. Before her sophomore year, she was already deciding between a handful of respectable Division I colleges: Kentucky, Louisville, and North Carolina State.
She plans to take her talent to North Carolina State. “Being recruited just showed me how good I was for my age and gave me an idea of what I can do with softball,” Silverman said. “I see myself being pretty successful for the most part, but, of course, I know I will struggle against some teams. I’m not the best, but all I can do is work hard to get better so I can be successful.”
