Watertown Baseball’s early season schedule was somewhat unusual. After some late-March scrimmages Watertown squeezed in two non-league games at Victory Field two weekends ago, beating Fitchburg and Maimonides. And then they had a week off before opening their Middlesex League schedule yesterday afternoon. Lexington Baseball arrived with a pedigree of success as they faced the Raiders in game one of their ’26 season.
On the mound for Watertown Jayden Pineda, getting his second start of the season. He pitched 3 1/3 solid innings against Fitchburg, but Lexington would be a bigger test. On a sunny, but cold (as in, brrrrrrr) and windy day, Lexington threw two legit number one starters, over six innings, and stymied Watertown bats on the way to a 7-0 win over the Raiders.
Early-season baseball can be very cruel, between the conditions, the lack of practice time and game experience. That would be especially true for the Raiders, starting one freshman, five sophomores, three juniors and one senior. Each pitcher threw a 1-2-3 first inning, but the game was essentially lost by the Raiders in the second. Pineda walked three in the inning. The Raiders allowed two stolen bases, committed two errors and threw one wild pitch. And through it all, Lexington didn’t get a hit and never hit it out of the infield, but by the time the third out was recorded the Watertown had gifted Lexington three runs.
In the meantime, Lexington’s two righthanders mixed decent velocity, location and decent breaking balls to the tune of nine strikeouts on the day. The only hit for the Raiders one time through the order was a soft chopper past the pitcher’s mound between first and second that Mason Lamacchia, the ninth hitter, hustled and beat out for an infield single. That turned out to be the only hit for the Raiders on the afternoon. Peter Pavlidis reached based twice, both times as a result of getting hit by a pitch. Other than that, Lexington pitching allowed no walks and committed no errors. A pretty impressive display of pitching given it was their first game of the season.
Lexington pushed across three more runs in the 4th inning by taking advantage of two walks with their first two hits of the season. They added a garbage run in the seventh thanks to some more generosity by the Raiders — two walks and a past ball — but no hits. And when the final out was recorded by the Raiders, they were all of three batters over the minimum and one infield hit from being no-hit. With the loss, the Raiders move to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in league play. They are back at it Wednesday night at Victory Field as they take on Burlington at 7 p.m. It is anticipated that Julian Boas, the impressive righthander for the Raiders who made the pitching staff as a Freshman last season, will get the start. Forecast? Clear and cold, temperature in the low-to-mid 30s at game-time. Spring baseball, folks!!
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – F H
Lexington 0 3 0 3 0 0 1 – 7 4
Watertown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 1
Watertown Pitchers:
Jayden Pineda
Gunnar Melling
Peter Pavlidis
Jordan Muraca
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Next 5, Watertown Baseball
Wednesday, April 8 7:00 PM vs
Burlington High School
Watertown – Victory Field
Baseball Diamond
Friday, April 10 4:15 PM @
Belmont High School
Belmont (MA) High School
Brendan Grant Field
Tuesday, April 14 7:00 PM vs
Wilmington High School
Watertown – Victory Field
Baseball Diamond
Thursday, April 16 4:30 PM vs
Woburn Memorial High School
Watertown – Victory Field
Baseball Diamond
Saturday, April 18 1:00 PM @
Fitchburg High School
Fitchburg High School
FHS Baseball Diamond