Collegiate baseball: Watertown Rapids seem something to build on after late-season surge

This was shown in the Rapids’ season finale, when they rallied from five runs down to win in walk-off fashion in a 10-9 triumph over Geneva on Friday night at Toyota Field at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

Watertown also stormed back after a slow start to the season to nearly make the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League playoffs, remaining in contention until the second-to-last day of their season.

“I wish we had a little more time,” Rapids general manager Nick Czerow said. “And Friday night, that was just an awesome feeling walking off that game and just really the whole lead up in fighting back for the playoff spot, it was really cool.”

The Rapids also improved on a 13-win season in 2021, as they finished 21-24 to complete the season, after making a push in the final weeks.

“I think to be 2-14 and to finish 21-24 is pretty amazing and shows the grit that these guys had and what they put in this summer,” Watertown coach Mike Kogut said. “And now they’ll all be heading off to school, go home for a little relaxation and then go back to school. And we’re excited to see how they do in their school seasons.”

After the team won only won six games in all of June, a month that also included a 13-game losing skid, it won 15 of its final 22 games.

“At the beginning of the year we were kind of figuring stuff out and at the end, I think we were one of the best teams in the league to be honest with you,” said Rapids infielder Brett Myers, a Lowville product who attends SUNY Oswego. “We never really gave up, we were always in games, even until the end.”

The Rapids were in contention for the last playoff spot in the East Division until Oneonta clinched the final postseason berth Thursday.

“I don’t how many of us thought we would be in that position after the big losing streak we had in June,” Czerow said. “But I think it just kind of shows that our players and coaches bought into the culture over time, and I think we grew as a team together and I was really proud of that.”

Watertown’s offense came alive with a surge in July, led by power-hitting infielder Tyree Bradley (Bloomfield College), who finished the season as the league-leader in RBIs (47), and was second in homers (nine) and fourth in batting average (.389).

Shortstop Clay Grady, who is headed to Virginia Tech in the fall, led the team in batting average (.402), as well generating 15 extra-base hits, including 10 doubles, three triples and one home run. He also drove in 21 runs in 102 at bats.

Ellis Schwartz (.333), Rob Conley (.306) and LaFargeville’s Owen Parliament (.293) rounded out the top five, with Parliament (.293) totaling four home runs and 22 RBIs and catcher Elvis Lopez (.286) drove in 29 runs as well as slugging three home runs.

“We have, we’ve come together as a team and this is by far probably the closest I’ve gotten to as a team,” said Lopez, who also attends Bloomfield College in his native New Jersey. “We’ve only played like two months of baseball and it feels like family.”

Lopez, who played in his final season of collegiate summer ball, with the PGCBL being his third summer league, was also instrumental in catching the Rapids’ primarily young pitching staff.

“They finished off even stronger,” Lopez said. “Mike Flyzik, even Derrike (Goutremout), and then (Watertown’s PJ) Fadel, all three of them and Jonah (Scherer) finished strong in his time here. .. They all came out and showed their true colors and fought hard.”

The group of pitchers featured many local faces, including, Wyatt Parliament, also from LaFargeville, coming off his freshman season at Rutgers, who went 3-1 for Watertown and posted a team-leading earned-run average (2.40). Goutremout generated a team-best 4-0 record for the Rapids along with a 3.61 ERA.

Watertown High School graduate Ryan Peters played in his second consecutive summer with the Rapids.

Peters, who now attends SUNY Brockport, recorded a 2-2 record this year for Watertown, along with recording three saves in 10 appearances, which included a pair of starts. He struck out 33 in 31 2/3 innings of work, while allowing 28 runs, with 24 of them earned.

“You couldn’t ask for any more from the local kids,” Kogut said. “They, especially on the mound, just delivered night-in and night-out and really made this a memorable summer for themselves as they started their college careers, a lot of them.”

Aidan Maxwell (West Canada Valley) forged a 4-1 record this season and Spencer Brown and Josh Ruiz each won three games.

Myers and Owen Parliament (Binghamton University), who pitched last summer, also returned for their second straight summer with Watertown.

“It was great, we all bonded like we were brothers,” Myers said. “This was a good time and it was pretty fun.”

The Rapids also made strides in attendance this year as it totaled 10,452 fans for an average of 402 a game from 26 total home games. This eclipsed last year’s total of 5,668 in 18 home games at the Fairgrounds.

“I felt pretty good, but I think there’s a lot more work we can do,” Czerow said. “Our attendance went up by average of 100 people per night, so that was at least a positive. But we also saw this year a lot of events came back after they were paused for COVID with a lot of competition all year long, with different festivals and fireworks shows and things.”

Watertown drew a crowd of 1,001 on opening night this year on June 2 and also garnered a turnout of 700 on fireworks night on July 3.

“Pretty memorable,” Myers said. “I mean the fan turnout this (year) was completely different from last year, we had a lot more fans, it was a lot more exciting. And if I come back next year, I’m excited for that.”

Said Czerow: “I liked what we got done, but on some of our big theme nights, we should be hitting about 1,000 people at least four times during a season, so I think that’s kind of like our next goal for the team.”

The team continued its community nights promotion by hosting nights for Cape Vincent, Lyme, Watertown and Carthage and hopes to add even more communities to the schedule for next year.

“We’ve definitely grown on the community nights, but I think there’s the potential for maybe eight communities that we could do, so I think those will grow,” Czerow said. “The Agriculture Day, that one was awesome again this year, we’re definitely going to do that again.”

This was the first summer of coaching at the collegiate level for Kogut, whose staff was rounded out by former longtime Lowville coach Dan Myers and Watertown baseball coach Riley Moonan.

“These guys are local, they’re kind of established and they care about the product they put out there,” Czerow said. “And they’re already jazzed up and already recruiting for next year’s roster. That was big thing we wanted to take care of and I think we did.”

“All the guys just brought different drills and different ideas to the game,” said Kogut, who also coaches baseball at Beaver River. “And everybody comes ready to work to add to that. And they have the good solid base of baseball knowledge, we’re really working on intricate parts of the game, and that’s what makes it so fun working with kids at this level.”

While Kogut and his staff hope to return for next season, this was Czerow’s final season with the Rapids.

Czerow is moving on to become general manager at Evans Mills Speedway, a new job he’ll shift into this month.

“So I went down to South Carolina to work in hockey and my ultimate dream there for a while was to run the Oswego Speedway, because that’s where I grew up going every Saturday night and that place means the world to me,” Czerow said. “So I had a chance to meet Peggy and Lee Gill and they’re just two of the best people you could meet, and that’s what I’ve heard from everyone that knows them in the area.

“And they offered me the opportunity to get my feet wet in motorsports, which I always wanted to do. And I think they have a great facility and since I’ve been here I’ve been to their track maybe four or five times and I’ve been really impressed every time I go.”

Czerow spent the past three years as the Rapids’ general manager, including the past two seasons, after the 2020 season was canceled because of COVID-19, while Kogut is coming off his first season with the team.

“These guys are going to have lifelong friends now from this summer that’s ultimately the goal, is to have fun and get better,” Kogut added. “I mean wins are great, but the bonding and the ability to move on and continue their baseball careers, that’s what this is really all about.”