High school baseball: Maurer, Soluri key win, leading Watertown to resurgence in baseball this season

May 11—WATERTOWN — Led by seniors Daniel Maurer and Preston Soluri, the Watertown baseball team is enjoying a resurgence this season.

A year after winning only two games, the pair has the Cyclones headed on the right path as the stretch drive to the postseason approaches.

Such was the case on Saturday morning as Maurer pitched six strong innings to earn the win and also led Watertown at the plate in generating an 11-1 victory over Indian River in a Frontier League "A-B" Division game at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

"It's so nice, it feels so good to win on our senior day," Maurer said. "In the past couple years we've had some rough seasons and it feels really good to kind of finish out the week on a good note."

With the win, fittingly on senior day, the Cyclones improved to 10-4, including 7-2 in league play, having already made a vast improvement on seasons in recent years.

"Danny's first three years on varsity, he never won a varsity game as a pitcher and this year he's 5-0," Watertown coach Riley Moonan said. "He's thrown two complete games and he's been an absolute horse for us on the season, as has John Flowers. But between that and the way he's swinging the bat, it's been really good. ... So he's seeing it good, seeing the ball well and he's pitching with confidence this year."

On the mound, Maurer spun a three-hitter, striking out six and walking two in a game shortened to six innings because of a mercy rule.

"I felt really good today," Maurer said. "I had the whole team behind me making plays in the field and our bats got to work, and we did really, really well."

"He pitched a gem today," Soluri, a catcher, said of Maurer. "Just mixing up all his stuff, everything was working, getting them to chase in the dirt and kept them on their toes — he got the best of them."

Maurer went 3-for-4 at the plate, including hitting a pair of doubles, drove in two runs and scored a pair of runs.

His battery mate Soluri reached base three times, including singling and driving in a run while scoring a run.

"Between him and Preston, Preston is our unsung hero," Moonan said. "He's an absolute horse behind the dish, he blocks everything, no one runs on him, without him we definitely don't reach 10 wins this year, that's for sure. We're definitely going to miss those two next year."

"I had Preston catching a great game back there, he did amazing," Maurer said. "And it really helps when the fielders are making plays and that really kind of sealed the deal."

It's been quite a turnaround this year for both the Cyclones and Maurer, as he remains unbeaten on the mound this season — to help spearhead Watertown's baseball renaissance.

"Danny's got quite a selection of pitches, he's got four or five pitches in his arsenal, and this year recently he's working on different arm slots," Moonan said. "So I think mixing up arm slots as well as having a lot of control with his off-speed stuff has really helped him out this year. He's never going to blow you away with his fastball, but he's got a lot of different options."

"It's a whole rebuild," Soluri said. "It feels phenomenal, last year we only had two wins and the year before that maybe three, maybe four. To have a season this successful so far makes me feel awesome about it."

Like Maurer, Soluri has been playing varsity ball since they were both called up to the varsity team when they were freshmen.

"It's great, to see where we grew from as ninth graders and working all the way up," Soluri said.

"It feels really good," Maurer said. "It's definitely been a long four years of tough seasons and kind of this whole team has just getting built up and that's how we got to where we are today. ... People are going to start to realize that we're not the team that we were last year and I think it just feels great to kind of see all that come to fruition."

Maurer sparked the offense Saturday early on as he doubled to lead off the second inning and eventually scored on a error on an errant throw on a dropped third strike.

Indian River (0-10) got a run back in the third as Dominic Cappuccetti II hit a leadoff double and scored on a single from Jimmy Huffman.

But Watertown struck back for two runs in the bottom of the inning as Flowers hit a leadoff single, Soluri was hit by a pitch and Maurer followed with his two-run double to left field.

The Cyclones scored two more runs in the fourth inning to lead 5-1 as Cooper Bush reached on an error and Jayveon Richey walked, with Bush later scoring on a bases-loaded walk and Richey came home on a wild pitch.

After Watertown scored three more runs in the fifth on a pair of bases-loaded walks and a sacrifice fly by Soluri to lead 8-1, it put the game in the books with three more runs in the sixth — keyed by RBI singles from Michal Pytlovany and Flowers.

"Moving guys over, just being patient at the plate, not chasing balls out of the zone, we were swinging it good today," Moonan said. "And I think it's just the next man up mentality for these guys, everybody wants to see everybody do well."

Flowers, a third baseman who is along with Maurer is one of the team's main starting pitchers, totaled two hits and drove in two runs on the day and Grayden Decker also singled twice to help pace the 11-hit attack.

"It's been a rebound year, we were 2-13 last year and I believe we're 10-4 now," Mooney said. "It's a testament to these kids, we put a lot of work in the offseason, they're sick and tired of losing games. We've put a lot of hours and work in between fundraising for the Myrtle Beach trip, just extra hitting and extra pitching in the offseason, it's paid off for them this season."

Watertown also bounced back with a much-needed win after dropping a 9-4 decision in eight innings to General Brown on Friday night in a game played at Jefferson Community College.

"It's phenomenal," Soluri said. "Some teams if you have a tough loss and everything's not going your way, they put your head down and they can't pick themselves back up. Watertown in the past would have done that, but I'm proud of my boys for being able to come back today and get a good win."

"(Friday), the box score doesn't quite show what the game was," Moonan said. "It was 2-2 going into the top of the eighth inning and we kind of lost command on the mound a little bit. But overall, it's about how you respond after a loss and these boys, they came here today hungry and responded pretty well."

The Cyclones will now gear up for the final week of the regular season with a potential division title in their sights.

"We've got a big three-game stretch coming up here," Moonan said. "And that's all you can ask for is opportunity."

Watertown trails division leader South Jefferson by one game in the standings and will play the Spartans in Adams at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, before hosting them at the same time on Wednesday at the Fairgrounds. The Cyclones will then host Beaver River on Thursday to wrap up the regular season.

"We've got South Jeff coming up and I'm excited for them," Soluri said. "We beat them over the summer and we're ready to do it again."

"I'm really excited to see what we can do this year," Maurer added. "I think in the past, we've gone out first round in sectionals and I think we have an opportunity to make a run this year. I think we're going to surprise a lot of Syracuse teams and show them what we're made of."