Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Raiders Baseball Faces Melrose on Senior Night

By |

Coach Aram Manoukian has been devotedly coaching baseball in Watertown for a very long time. He played the game, he knows the game, he loves to teach the game. The 2026 season has been all about teaching, with a roster that includes five freshman and 11 sophomores. He knew from the start of pre-season that there would be bumps along the way. He knew the Middlesex League was loaded with good baseball teams. What he didn’t necessarily know was how big the bumps would be, and as it turns out, they were huge. The final home game of 2026 was yet another bump, as the Raiders lost to Melrose 11-2 on Senior Night. The only two Seniors on the Raisers roster are Kingston Omolade and Aidan Kanode. They were recognized in pre-game festivities. Kingston was the second baseman in Coach Manoukian’s starting lineup, and Aidan was the DH. Congratulations to both for their efforts on behalf of Raiders Baseball and Watertown Athletics! Tuesday’s game was delayed by weather, as in summer-like rain and wind and thunder and lighting — at the end of a summer-like day which in realty is still spring.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Baseball Faced Stoneham, Winchester at Victory Field

By |

Watertown Baseball moved to 1-5 in league play with an 8-2 loss to Stoneham at Victory Field on the afternoon of May 1. In six league games to date, Watertown has scored 0, 1, 1, 4, 1 and 2 runs. It’s not a recipe for winning baseball, whether you are the run-prevention Red Sox or the Watertown Raiders Varsity Baseball. The Raiders have some good, young talent and they are only going to get better, but putting together hits and scoring runs continues to be a challenge in a very stingy Middlesex League. The Raiders sent Julian Boas, their sophomore right hander, to the mound, and early on he was in command. So was Stoneham’s tall right hander, along with his decent fastball and curve. After two innings on a beautiful Spring day, and at the end of a cool and rainy week, the game was scoreless and visions of a pitcher’s duel seemed real. But the Raiders came unglued in the third, letting their starter down with poor defense and flat play. Boas started the third with a ground out to first. It looked like he had the second out when a wicked breaking ball got Stoneham’s leadoff hitter to chase for strike three — but, the ball bounced in front of Raiders catcher Andrew Reilly and by the time Reilly retrieved the ball in fair play, the Stoneham runner was three-quarters of the way down the first base line. Reilly didn’t have a chance to throw him out by this point, but he tried and best intentions went awry, as the ball went to the right of first baseman Peter Pavlidis and towards the chain-link fence behind first base. The runner had struck out, but got the bag at first and took second on the throwing error. Instead of two outs and no one on, it was runner on second with one out. Demoralizing if you are a pitcher!

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Baseball Wins First League Game of ’26 Behind The Right Arm of Boas

By |

Spring baseball turned into summer baseball Tuesday night at Victory Field. Temperatures were in the 80’s most of the day and still in the low 70’s at game time. Ah yes, game time. This is an important piece of Tuesday’s story. Start time was slated for 7 p.m. At 6:50 P.M., under mostly clear skies both teams had completed their warm-ups, and both starting pitchers were deep into preparation in their respective bullpens.  Seven P.M. passed – no umps.  By 7:15 P.M., Wilmington was throwing a football around. Finally at 7:20 the umps strolled in thru the DPW gate and across the football field. By 7:30 P.M. we had first pitch. Not a big deal on a beautiful summer-like night, right? Wrong, but first the skinny on a 4-0 Watertown win. Sophomore Righthander Julian Boas got the start Tuesday night against Wilmington, who came into the game 0-3 in league play, losing three times last week, their first week of the season.  Watertown was also 0-3 in league play, and like Wilmington, lost all three league games played last week. Boas got experience on the hill last season as a Freshman, and takes a regular turn in the rotation this year. 

He has good velocity on his fastball, throws an affective breaking ball and mixes in a few change ups. What Boas has in spades is command and control. He can paint the outside corner with all his pitches, he knows when to mix in the fastball out of the strike zone, and best of all, he is not afraid to pitch inside and he does it with command. He sawed off many a batters Tuesday night with inside fastballs and his breaking ball. Rare to find someone so young so in control of location with his pitches, but Boas is, and it was on display Tuesday night. Boas retired the side in order in the first, third and fourth innings. Of the 22 batters he faced on the night, he got nine outs via the groundball and he struck out five.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Baseball Faces Tough Lexington Team in League Opener

By |

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.

Sports

JIM’S VIEW: Watertown Baseball Opens The ’26 Season With A Solid Non-League Win

By |

There are many “truths” in baseball, and there are two among many when it comes to early-season Spring baseball games. Truth number one? Quite often the weather will be more suited to Football season. Truth number two? Very rarely will games be “clean.” In other words, there will be errors and base-running gaffes and pitchers who have trouble finding the strike-zone, and on and on. Most high school teams get relatively very little time outside prior to the regular season beginning, and just as little actual game action. All that said, Saturday’s home opener was a pretty darn good baseball game for Game 1 of the season, and despite all the above happening, the Raiders swung the bat, played decent baseball overall and received two quality pitching performances on the way to a 9-7 non-league win versus Fitchburg.

Around Town

Essay: “Ground Ball” — An Ode to Spring, Baseball and Keeping the “Mounds” Clean

By |

Paul J. Sullivan Playground

By George DonahueWatertown Resident

Forward

While I wrote this in the spring 2014 when living in Watertown at the Coolidge Apartments, the stories in and around baseball never go out of style. The story was published in the Watertown Tab when I wrote it and I worked in the Clerk’s office in the town hall. The director of the Parks and Recreation at that time came rushing into the Clerk’s office waving the paper in the air asking if I authored the article. I acknowledged that it was me who penned the article, expecting to feel the newspaper  bop me off the head, but instead he thrust hand out, said it was a good article and walked out of the clerk’s office. In July of 2025, my wife Jeanne and I returned to Watertown and moved back into the Apartments at the Coolidge School.

Sports

Watertown Battled First Place Wakefield on Senior Night

By |

Senior night is always special. It doesn’t matter if a team has a winning record or a losing one, is heading to the post-season tournament or not. Senior night is about family and friends. Senior night is about remembering all the good times and the practice and the commitment and the training and the devotion to team. Parents and grandparents and siblings share in the joy and recognition. And when the night is done, it’s hard to believe that one’s high school career is almost at an end. Well, for Jack Brisson, Patrick Johnson-Ciano, Lucas Pizzuto, Jack Brennan, Domenic Moynihan, Daniel Heep, Emilio Berndt, Adam Wainwright, Joseph Parmley and G’Nai Concannon-Garvin, baseball senior night has officially come and gone, and while Watertown came up just short against first-place Wakefield 3-2, it was a memorable night.  

The starting lineup included seniors at first (Pizzuto), shortstop (Berndt), third (Moynihan), center (Brennan) and DH (Wainwright).  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Watertown’s starting pitcher was the impressive freshman, Julian Boas. Boas ended up pitching four and third, giving up three runs on six hits, but he kept his team in the game. In relief, the equally impressive left hander Michael Caterino, also a freshman, pitched shutout ball for two-and-two-thirds innings. Wakefield’s starting pitcher threw a complete game and struck out 10. He also went two-for-four at the plate with an RBI single in the first.

Sports

Two Straight Victories for Watertown Baseball Team

By |

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.