Sports is full of cliches, and baseball is no exception. You’re only as good as your starting pitcher. Your best players need to be your best players. Swing the bat. Put the ball in play and good things will happen. Well, these cliches were all on full display at Victory Field Thursday evening as Watertown took two from Wilmington. First up was the completion of a suspended game with Wilmington from April 15. The game resumed in the 5th inning and Watertown trailing 5-1. Watertown got some excellent pitching from freshman Lefty Michael Caterino, who kept Wilmington at 5 runs. In the meantime, Watertown went to the seventh inning having cut the lead to 5-4. They put the ball in play and good things did happen, tying it in the seventh and winning it in the eighth inning, as Kingston Omalade slid into home for the walk-off win. This ended a five-game losing streak and put Watertown at 4-9 on the season. Game 2
The regularly scheduled game matched Wilmington’s ace, a tall right hander with a plus fastball and curve. Watertown countered with freshman Julian Boas. This young man is very composed on the mound, and throws three pitches effectively for strikes — a fastball, curve and changeup. So, both teams were instantly good because their starting pitcher made them good.
Wilmington’s righthander is going to Hobart in the Fall to continue his baseball career, but in the here and now in the first inning Jack Brennan led off with an infield single, moved to second when Emilio Berndt was hit by a pitch, and scored when Jayden Pineda delivered an excellent swing that resulted in a line-drive, opposite field single to score the first run of the game.