WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Saturday night baseball from Toyota Field featured the Watertown Rapids as they hosted the Amsterdam Mohawks in PGCBL action.
The Rapids would find themselves in an early hole in this one, trailing 7-1 after 1 inning.
At the top of the 2nd, Cam Gurney grounds out to 3rd as Bruer Webster scores, upping the Amsterdam lead to 8-1.
At the top of the 3rd, the Mohawks tack on another run as Bryce Hubbard hits a sacrifice fly to center field. Dakota Duffalo tags and scores: 9-1 Amsterdam.
At the bottom of the 3rd, the Rapids answer when Nick Mazzotta flies out to right field and Jax Miller tags and comes home: 9-2 Amsterdam.
Amsterdam goes on to beat the Rapids 9-7.
July 1st marked the halfway point of the Rapids 2023 campaign, one that’s seen its share of ups and downs.
The month of June had its share of peaks and valleys for the Watertown Rapids, with some thrilling come-from-behind wins and some blowout losses.
The Rapids finished the month with an 8-13 record, good for 7th place in the 9 team PGCBL Eastern Division.
Despite the ups and downs, Watertown Manager Mike Kogut gives his team high marks at the midway point of the season.
”I think we’re about a B+ right now. Definitely had some really nice outings but we’ve struggled at times due to lack of consistency. There’s definitely some room for improvement,” said Kogut.
As a team, the Rapids have scored 83 runs through their first 21 games, averaging just about 4 runs a game and on the mound. Local products Ryan Peters and Derrike Goutremout have been 2 of the Rapids best hurlers with Peters posting a 3-0 record with a 2.41 ERA and Goutremout posting a 2-1 record with a 2.70 ERA.
”A lot of positives that I saw is that the kids are starting to come together, they’re getting along on and off the field, starting to build that report. They’re starting to adjust to the wood bats, the arms are getting geared back up to full throttle after a few weeks off at the end of their school season. We’re excited because the 2nd half is where this league really kicks up,” said Kogut.
One area the Rapids have been snakebit this season is in the field, with the team committing 43 errors, including two 7 error contests in their last 5 games.
Kogut says that has played a major part in the Rapids’ record and adds it’s been a big focus for both the coaches and the players.
”Definitely defense. I mean, we’ve been working on that every chance we get, pre-game, off days. Just building our defense to make more plays and give the opponents as few outs as possible,” said Kogut.
If the Rapids can clean those things up, Kogut feels his team can turn things around like they did in the 2nd half of last season and make a push for a playoff spot.
”Yeah, going into the 2nd half, the goal is just to compete. Obviously, we’re looking for a playoff spot and right now we’re positioned kind of in the middle of a pack of teams fighting for the last 3, so we definitely have the opportunity in front of us. We’re gonna focus one game at a time. We start to play kind of the part of our schedule is gonna be those teams that we’re up against for those playoff spots in the 2nd half,” said Kogut.
The Watertown Red and Black are enjoying a break in the schedule with an off week for the 4th of July weekend.
Watertown is back in action a week Saturday, July 8th when they travel to the Rochester area to face the Charlotte Colonials in a Gridiron Developmental Football League contest.
Red and Black Coach George Ashcraft says the team will be working on a couple different things as they head into their final road game of the 2023 season, looking to bounce back from a 27-13 loss to Syracuse last Saturday that dropped their record to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in league play.
“Well, again, we’re gonna work on tackling. Guys have gotta learn to wrap up defensively. Timing, everything’s a timing thing offensively with our passing game. The running game, hit the hole, square up and just hit the hole. The other night, we only had one running back that’s been in one of our go-to guys all year at the game. We filled in with other people the other night in the backfield a couple times and it worked,” said Ashcraft.
The Thousand Islands Spirits picked up their 4th straight Friday night, beating the Salt City Eels 20-10.
The Spirits are back in action on Friday night when they host Salt City in an NABLL Upstate Division contest with action set to begin at 8 p.m.
It will be the Spirits’ 3rd home game of the season, and Spirits owner and GM Nate Jobson says he’s been pleased with the crowds the first 2 games of the season.
”The crowds have been great. Everyone that goes, every new person that goes and watches it says ‘holy cow, this is the most fun I’ve ever had watching a sport.’ You don’t really understand it until you see it. There’s a lot of lacrosse fans here, but this game is a little different,” said Jobson.
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