Collegiate baseball: Rapids finished out of running again but had something to play for every game

Aug. 4—WATERTOWN — While the end result yielded another losing season, Mike Kogut liked the grit and fight the Watertown Rapids showed this season.

Despite struggling through most of their latest Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League campaign, the Rapids displayed signs of breaking through, especially later into the season.

Watertown, which forged a 15-30 record, made a push in late July and nearly reached the postseason in the circuit.

In fact in similar fashion to last year, the Rapids made it all the way until the final day of the regular season before they were eliminated from playoff contention.

"Well, for the second year in a row we made it to the last week," said Kogut, who coached the team for a second consecutive season. "Every game we played this year had playoff implications for us and unfortunately we got rained out on the last day and lost our shot to kind of win it or lose it on the field. The boys battled and persevered through the ups and downs."

Watertown went .500 over its past 14 games at 7-7, including winning three of its last five outings to make a bid for the postseason.

The team needed to win and receive a favorable result from another game that day, but its game at Oneonta was rained out on July 29.

"We were disappointed that day," Kogut said. "But anytime you make it through that grind of a season, it's also an accomplishment, too."

The Rapids once again featured a blend of local players as well as ball players from around the Northeast and beyond.

"It's always great having the local kids play and do well," Kogut said. "It's really nice to see."

Ryan Peters enjoyed his best summer at the collegiate level by engineering a team-leading 5-1 record on the mound.

In his third year with the Rapids, Peters also recorded a save, recording a 4.50 earned-run average in nine appearances, including six starts.

"I think this year our rotation and our relievers, everybody, consistently night in and night out kept us in games this year," Kogut said. "Where last year, there were some games I think that got out of hand more than this year."

Peters, a Watertown graduate who resides in Chaumont, also paced the team in strikeouts (31) and innings pitched (38) this season.

"For a local guy coming back for his third season, I think he ended up 5-1 with a save," Kogut said of Peters, who this summer was coming off his junior season at SUNY Brockport. "So to have an awesome season like that, hopefully that springboards him into a nice fall and a good spring season coming up."

Lyme product Derrike Goutremout, in his second year with the Rapids, tied for second on the team wins this season with two along with Austin McClure and Cory Arthur.

"I think Derrike came in and got some good work as he heads off to a new school, so hopefully that helped him," Kogut said. "Mike Flyzik was coming off a season where he was injured, so we were just kind of building him up pitch-count wise to get him ready to attack his fall season."

Teck Nash (2.17), McClure (3.89) and Jonah Shearer (4.05) paced the team in earned-run average.

Shearer, a Beaver River graduate who attends SUNY Oswego, pitched in his second season with the team, along with Lyme grad Flyzik, who attends St. Lawrence University.

"Jonah Shearer threw great for us right off the get-go and then had an injury," Kogut said. "He battled back through his injury to start three games for us towards the end of the season and he did a great job in those as well."

Kogut said that Goutremout, who attended Utica University, is transferring to Division II Wheeling University in West Virginia.

"We had more arms, which was the key to our success on the mound," Kogut said. "Guys were able to get into the rotation and fill their roles and we had a better idea of what our pitching rotation was this year, for sure."

Offensively, the Rapids were led by outfielder Jax Miller of Walsh University, who played in all 43 games this summer. Miller led the team with a .362 batting average, as well as in hits (51), runs scored (31) and stolen bases (15), while driving in 21 runs.

"Jax Miller was the most consistent for us," Kogut said of the Pittsburgh native. "He did a nice job hitting for average and making things happen at the top of the lineup."

Catcher David McCann, who is from Turnbull, Conn., was also steady at the plate with a .288 batting average, drove in 22 runs and paced the team in doubles (eight) and home runs (four), along with driving in 22 runs

"I thought a bunch of other guys might not have put up consistent, 45-game numbers," Kogut said. "But they each had streaks along the way. David McCann provided some solid pop in the middle of the lineup, Nick Locurto was kind of a spark plug, he had some good games for us to get on base and get some things started early.

"And then other guys that were in there day to day, Gaetan Grandelli, Pranav (Sundar) and Quinten (Perilli), they just grinded out at bats day after day to give us as much production as possible."

Grandelli, an outfielder from Philadelphia, Pa., paced the team in RBI with 23 and batted .285 and tied for second in home runs with California native and infielder Sundar (.226, 16 RBI) and LaFargeville's Owen Parliament (.275, nine RBI in 12 games) — with two each.

"I think our offense was not as strong as last year," Kogut said. "But I think that we battled and got scrappy to kind of make up for that. We didn't have somebody hitting 12 home runs or the consistency of a .400 batting average of anything like that. But we had grinders that tried to do what it took to put runs on the board."

Last year, the Rapids started 2-14, but made a big push to finish at 21-24, just missing out on the playoffs, after winning 13 games the previous season.

This season, Watertown experienced a better start, but slumped during the middle of the campaign, at one point losing nine consecutive games from June 30 through July 8.

The team never seemed to find its footing as even after winning its home opener in a 5-3 decision against Utica on June 2, was never above the .500 mark all season,

The Rapids finished at 15-30 and in a tie for seventh place in the East Division with the Boonville Lumberjacks.

The top six teams in the division made the playoffs.

"We actually started out a lot better this year then last year," Kogut said. "And then we kind of hit a slump there in the middle that kind of put us behind the eight-ball and we fought back over the last two weeks of the season to stay in contention.

"Whereas the year before we started out awfully slow and got hot towards the end. I think it was a little different, but I think this year our pitching did a great job for us."

Watertown was bidding to make the playoffs for the first time since 2018, which was the franchise's first season.

"Just that there's going to be ups and downs and the season's unpredictable," Kogut said. "In building a roster, pitching depth was definitely beneficial for us. We were trying to keep our position (player) roster limited so guys get reps. And we struggled, we had some injuries to some guys right at the end of their college seasons that never got the opportunity to make it to Watertown because of that.

"And then a couple guys got injured early on during our season, so that kind of limited us position wise. But that's the risk we take because we want to give the kids as many reps as possible."

Perennial league juggernaut Amsterdam won seven of eight games against Watertown this season en route to running away with the East Division title and claiming yet another league championship.

"Just to keep grinding and to battle through the downs and enjoy the ups," Kogut added about the season. "As much as we had some downs this year, we had great wins, some walk-off wins, a win over Amsterdam, who ended up with five losses on the season and actually just won the championship (Thursday night)."

Kogut, who once again led an all-local coaching staff with Lowville's Dan Myers and Riley Moonan of Watertown, says he would like to return once again as head coach of the Rapids "given the right setup."

"It was nice to have a full season of baseball again and our fans are phenomenal, so we're always appreciative of that," he added.