The Boston Renegades have been practicing beep baseball for years at Watertown’s Filippello Park. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)
Watertown has become the home training spot for the Boston Renegades, a beep baseball team. The sport allows players with vision impairments to continue to play and be part of a team. The team marks its 25th anniversary in 2025, and for most of that time Watertown has been its home. Each Sunday, the Renegades take the field at Filippello Park to prepare for upcoming tournaments, including the NBBA Beep Baseball World Series.
Baseball is such a great game. While it might seem to be all about the pitcher and batter, there’s so much else in play. Every pitch and every swing produces a reaction and a responsibility from every player either in the field or on the bases. And when, as a team, you are swinging the bats well and running the bases aggressively and making the plays in the field, you feel invincible. Unfortunately, Watertown Baseball isn’t at that happy place at the moment, and it showed last night as the Raiders lost to Arlington 14-0 at Victory Field. Watertown finished their April schedule this week with losses on Monday at home to Reading and Wednesday on the road to Winchester. Good riddance to April! Hope was in the air, though. One, a turn of the calendar to a new month would bring better results. Two, last year’s starting catcher, Andrew Reilly, returned to the lineup Thursday night after sitting out April with an injury. And, three, Watertown’s best pitcher to date, Lucas Pizzuto was on the mound. Arlington countered with a lefty with good stuff – a sneaky fastball, a sweeping curveball thrown from different arm slots, and a change up. Optimism “left the building” quickly though, as Pizzuto lasted only 8 batters while giving up 5 runs. The first inning was a peek into the state of the Raiders nine at the moment – not cohesive, not making the fundamental plays, not communicating – and in baseball, there’s very little room for error.
Aurise Tattrie will be playing her sixth year of college field hockey at UMass Lowell this fall. (Contributed Photo)
Aurise Tattrie has amassed perhaps the longest college career of any former Watertown field hockey player, as she enters her sixth year playing at UMass Lowell. She will play her final season as a captain of the River Hawks, but the journey has had its ups and downs. In her time in Lowell, Tattrie (who plays back) has appeared in 54 games, made 52 starts, scored one goal and added four assists for 7 total of points. She has played 3,083 minutes for the River Hawks.
Monday Night April 28th Watertown Baseball looked to end a two-game losing streak versus perennial Middlesex League Baseball power Reading. Unfortunately, it didn’t come to be, as Watertown took it on the chin by the score of 14-2 in five innings at Victory Field. It was a beautiful spring night, not a cloud in the sky and nary a sign of even the slightest breeze as the flag located down the first base line was entirely still.
Senior co-captain Domenic Moynihan has done his best to do it all this spring, from playing second & third to catching (while starting-catcher Andrew Reilly heals from an off-season injury), to pitching, all while batting second game after game. Last night he was asked to take the mound by Coach Aram Manoukian. What transgressed was any pitchers worst nightmare, and one that many before the well-intended Moynihan have experienced – he couldn’t find the strike zone. The first four Reading hitters all drew walks. 1-0 Reading. Moynihan hung in and struck out the five-hitter, and was now a double-play ground ball away from escaping the inning. Control woes returned though, and three of the next four walked and Moynihan’s night on the mound was done. Nine batters, seven walks, one hit, one strikeout.
Friday afternoon Varsity Baseball played their second game in three days, and looked to get back on the winning track after a Wednesday loss at Wakefield by the score of 11-2. Visiting the Raiders was a Melrose team with a 6-3 record, and winners of five in a row. Watertown sent their ace to the mound, senior righthander Lucas Pizzuto, who had pitched deep into all his outings so far this season, including an impressive 8-inning performance Friday night April 18 versus Stoneham, a game Watertown won 5-4.
On this day, though, Pizzuto lacked a bit of his usual reliable control, and he just couldn’t get his curveball moving or throw it for strikes. It didn’t help that Melrose swung the bats early and often, spraying the ball all over the field. Pizzuto ended up only pitching two innings and giving up four runs. But baseball is a team game, and this was a team loss, final score Melrose 10 – Watertown 0.
More than 30 Watertown residents will be running the 2025 Boston Marathon on Monday, April 21, 2025. The fastest resident was Michael Creedon, and the fastest female runner was Kimberly Dixon. Creedon was the 256th fastest man with a time of 2:32:14. Dixon finished in a time of 2:56:06, and she was the 227th fastest woman. The second fastest man from Watertown was Erik Hinrichsen, who had a time of 2:36:06, and Dennis McDuffie’s time of 2:46:33 was the third fastest for local runners.
Watertown Baseball got a walk-off 5-4 win in extra innings over Stoneham Thursday night at Victory Field. The 8-inning classic matched up two teams desperately looking for their first league win of the 2025 season, and in Stoneham’s case, their first win period.
Both teams sent a good pitcher to the mound to try and make it happen. Stoneham’s right-hander had a decent fastball, a very good changeup and a pretty darn good slow curve. The Raiders sent their early-season ace Lucas Pizzuto to the mound. The senior right hander already had a win and a no-decision, that coming during an excellent outing against Burlington last Friday night where he pitched 6 innings and left with the game tied 4-4. (Watertown lost the game 5-4 in heartbreaking fashion, giving up an unearned run in the top of the 7th, and then getting runners on base in the bottom of the inning but not being able to push them across the plate.)
It was a beautiful April night for baseball, cool but not cold, clear skies, and most importantly no wind! Stoneham struck first with two runs in the second, courtesy of an RBI-single by the their nine-hitter in the lineup, followed by a bomb of a triple hit by the leadoff hitter to drive in the second run. Watertown answered back in the bottom of the second with a run by playing small ball. Jayden Pineda walked to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kingston Omalade, and then Adam Wainwright (remember that name) singled over the second basemen’s head to drive in Omalade. Watertown tied it at 2-2 in the third inning. A leadoff walk once again hurt Stoneham, this time to leadoff hitter Jack Brennan. He moved to second base on a fielder’s choice, and then exhibited some great baseball acumen on the base paths!
Watertown Baseball finished off a busy week (three games in four days) Friday night April 11th with a 7 p.m. ballgame versus Burlington at Victory Field. A weekend of lousy weather was in store, and the weather gurus predicted it would start sometime Friday night, but luckily rain held off. But, it was chilly! On the mound for the Raiders was the tall, senior, hard-throwing right hander Lucas Pizzuto. In his last start Pizzuto pitched a gem, a one-hitter while striking out 10. But Friday night he was facing a strong league opponent, and after three innings it was 2-1 Burlington. Both teams, despite the chilly conditions, were swinging the bat aggressively and putting the ball in play.
Monday, April 7, Watertown baseball was supposed to start a busy week with a league game versus crosstown rival Belmont at Victory Field, but inclement weather made that a non-starter. Tuesday, April 8 got off to a wet and gloomy start, and it even snowed, but a little after noon the sun came out, and a make-up was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at 4:30. This isn’t a weather article of course, but a little more weather first before the recap. It was sunny and dry, but extremely windy and downright cold. Basically, what any day in April can turn out to be like on a baseball field in New England. Well, the chilly conditions didn’t stop Belmont from getting off to a hot start, as they scored one in the top of the first off Watertown starter Jayden Pineda, and two more off the right hander in the top of the third.
In the bottom of the third Watertown loaded the bases, highlighted by a wicked liner just inside the third base bag for a double by lefty hitter Domenic Moynihan. Shortly after, cleanup hitter Lucas Pizzuto came up with the bases loaded and was hit by a pitch to drive in Watertown’s first run. The Raiders pushed home another run, but couldn’t come up with the big hit and stranded three runners and went to the fourth inning trailing 3-2.
