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!
