Watertown Baseball opened up their 2025 season at Victory Field on Tuesday April 1 – no fooling – a non-league game against Maimonides School of Brookline. Watertown baseball, fresh off a tournament run two years ago, ran into a rough season in 2024, but one season’s woes can become a new season’s expectations in no time! Tuesday was the first opportunity to create a new narrative.
It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, for the 4:30 p.m. start. As you would expect, though – with with shade already enveloping the Watertown dugout and the third base line, and a hearty breeze on top of temperatures in the high 40s/low 50s – it was your typical early-spring environment. Which is to mean, it was chilly!
Not so for the Watertown bats, though. After retiring the one and two hitters, the Maimonides starting pitcher faced 10 Watertown batters and allowed 8 runs! Watertown followed up with 3 in the second and after Maimonides scored 3 in the top of the third, Watertown came right back with seven in the bottom of the inning. So, after three it was 18-3 Watertown. Everyone chipped in at the plate and swung the bats, including Lucas Pizzuto and Dominic Moynihan with home runs. Watertown added 4 more in the 4th inning, and after 5 innings the game was called, final score Watertown 22, Maimonides 4.
The lineup for opening day? Captain Luca Pizzuto at First, Captain Dominic Moynihan at Second, Jaden Pineda at Third and Captain & All-Conference Emilio Berndt at Shortstop. The outfield had Kingston Omolade in left, captain Jack Brennan in center and Adam Wainwright in right. Peter Pavlidis was the DH. Behind the plate, substituting for the injured Andrew Reilly, was G’Nai Concannon-Garvin.
Perhaps the biggest potential development is that Head Coach Aram Manoukian started Freshman Julian Boas on the mound. Very few freshman have graced the Watertown mound over the years according to Manoukian, but Boas and reliever Michael Caterino who pitched following Boas with two innings of relief, is also a freshman. Boas is a right hander who spotted a good fastball and a really good curveball; Caterino is a lefty who also had a good fastball and a sweeping curveball. High school baseball success is all about pitching depth, and be ing able to throw strikes and stay out of the big inning. Coach Manoukian might have this in 2025.
Watertown follow up Tuesday’s non-league rout with a trip to Lexington on Wednesday April 2. Their league opener didn’t go well, as Watertown lost 14-3.
Watertown vs. Fitchburg, April 4
Watertown Baseball finished a busy first week of the 2025 season on a good note Friday night at Victory Field. The Raiders second non-league game of the week was against Fitchburg, who came into the game 0-1. They go home 0-2 after a 21-1 rout by Watertown.
Watertown opened the week on Tuesday April 1 with a non-league win against Maimonides, and lost the following day at Lexington to the traditional powerhouse, 14-3. Friday night’s starting pitcher for the Raiders was the tall, hard-throwing righthander Lucas Pizzuto. And the senior was hands-down star of the night.
Pizzuto retired the side in order in the first with two swinging-strikeouts. He retired the side in the second with two more swinging-strikeouts. He retired the side in order in the third, including fielding his position extremely well. One chopping ground ball he had to range to his left and leap for, and he threw the runner out by two steps. The second was a hard-hit ball right back at him, which hit Pizzuto’s foot and definitely stung – but while on the ground he got to the ball and threw the runner out by a step. Nine up and nine down through three innings.
In the fourth Pizzuto struck out two, but also issued his first baserunner with a two-out walk. The Fitchburg player stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and then the next batter beat out an infield hit that led to Fitchburg’s only run. Pizzuto retired the side in the fifth. Night over, as the mercy rule ended the game after 5 innings. One run allowed, 7 strikeouts, 1 hit allowed (barely) and Pizzuto went to
1 -0 on the season!
Fitchburg’s pitching was not a ‘star of the game.’ They walked 10 and hit 3 Raiders. Watertown took advantage of all of that to the tune of scoring two in the first, six in the second while sending 10 batters to the plate, seven in the third while sending 13 to the plate and six more in the fourth while sending 12 batters to the plate.
Senior Shortstop Emilio Berndt led the way with three hits, and was a HR short of hitting for the cycle. Seniors Jack Brennan and Dominic Moynihan, the one and two hitters in the lineup, each had two hits. Pizzuto helped his own cause in the second with a bases-loaded triple to make it 5-0 at the time. Everyone in the lineup had a hit except for Peter Pavlidis, who got on base twice and scored twice.
Week two is no less busy than week 1, and they are all league games. Watertown has 7 p.m. games at Victory Field Monday and Friday night (April 7 & 11), against Belmont and Burlington respectively, and they go to Woburn on Wednesday April 9 for a 4 p.m. game. A big week ahead for Watertown baseball!