Collegiate baseball: Rapids generate big rally against Genesee to win season home finale

WATERTOWN — Even when they’re down, the Watertown Rapids have rarely considered themselves out for most of their challenging season.

Despite blowing an early lead, the Rapids responded by finding a way to finally break through for a victory, winning in their season home finale Friday night.

After the Genesee Rapids won the first game of the day, 9-3, Watertown bounced back to prevail, 10-8, in the nightcap to split a New York Collegiate Baseball League played before a combined crowd of 418, including 250 in the second game, at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

In the second game, Watertown jumped out to an early 5-1 advantage, only to yield a big inning as Genesee struck for six runs in the fourth.

But Watertown bounced back by generating a decisive inning in the fifth by plating five runs to take the lead for good.

“It feels good, we’ve had a little struggle towards the end of the season,” Watertown’s Nate Matteson said. “But it definitely feels good, especially for the last home game in front of such a great crowd.”

With the victory, Watertown (8-21-3) snapped a three-game slide and also won for the first time in the past 10 games.

“It feels really good,” Watertown coach Kameron Hartenstein said. “I told the guys ‘baseball’s a beautiful thing.’ We won our first game here and we won our last which I think is a glimpse into the future of Watertown Rapids baseball.”

“Definitely, I think we’ve been so close for a while, and this time it all came together and we were able to respond,” Watertown’s Peyton Adams said. “They threw a good pitcher and our pitchers kept giving us a chance and we put some hits together. We finally got some big hits and we were able to get it done.”

Watertown batted around, sending 11 batters to the plate in the frame, as after loading the bases, Soichiro Hanawa drove in a run with a flyout to center field to begin the scoring outburst.

“Our team’s known for doing that,” Matteson said. “We don’t back down, no matter the deficit, other coaches have noted that to our coach, we really don’t back down. So even if we let up a big number like that, we’re not nervous, not worried about it, we’ll just do our jobs and see what the outcome is.”

Then after Nate Matteson walked to load the bases, the team showed plenty of hustle as Will Bartoli scored from third on a wild pitch and Danny Leyva came home on the same sequence as Genesee catcher P.J. Ortiz threw the ball away as Watertown seized an 8-7 advantage.

Later, Adams doubled to right field to drive in a run and Jorge Rodriguez followed with an RBI single to push the lead to 10-7.

“It’s funny, it kind of seemed like they had all the momentum,” Hartenstein said of Genesee. “I just kind of looked to the guys and I said ‘hey, we just took a punch and it’s time for you to throw a punch.’ And our guys responded and they went out and like I say all the time, they just competed and I think when you go out there and you compete, I guess for seven innings in today’s contest, you have a really good shot no matter what to win the game.”

“Some innings are like that, sometimes you’re not hitting the ball but you’re getting on base,” Matteson said. “That’s baseball for you, if you don’t hit the best barrels every time you can just hit it where the defense is not. That inning just worked out for us and it ended up working out at the end.”

Rodriguez then came on in relief and pitched two innings to record the save and complete the victory.

After tossing a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth, Rodriguez yielded three straight hits to open the seventh, including an RBI double by Luis Tumero.

But with runners on second and third, Rodriguez induced a groundout to the mound and then struck out the final two batters to finish off the triumph.

“He’s kind of been our shut the door guy this year,” Hartenstein said of Rodriguez. “He’s not exactly a pitcher per se, but he’s one of those guys where he could pitch at school and this summer he’s been awesome for us on the mound, at the dish, playing third base, at the bat. He was an All-Star for a reason and I think he could have been an All-Star at any of those positions.”

Damon Asencio, the fourth Watertown pitcher of the game, pitched a scoreless fifth inning to record the win against Genesee (14-16-1).

Earlier, Matteson pitched three strong innings in his second start of the season, allowing one run on three hits and one walk while striking out three and left with the lead.

“It’s definitely different from high school, you’ve definitely got to compete with every batter,” Matteson said. “It’s not just the first few batters, the entire lineups are just a grind. But it still feels good to be out there on the mound.”

Watertown jumped on Genesee by scoring four runs in the first inning to grab its first lead of the day at 4-1 as Matteson reached on an infield single and later sped home from third on a groundout hit to the pitcher.

Later, Bartoli stroked an RBI single to center and Leyva followed with a two-run bloop single to center with two outs.

Watertown led 5-1 in the second as Adams reached on an infield single and scored when Sam Finarelli belted a double off the right-field wall.

Then after John Flowers came in to pitch in the fourth, Genesee sent 12 men to the plate and scored six runs to lead 7-5, sparked by RBI singles from Scottie Dunleavy and Mikey DeLuca, with three more runs coming with the bases loaded on a pair of walks and a hit batter.

But this time Watertown had a answer offensively and rose to the occasion to win its first home game since June 24.

“Its’ been a long day, but we’re in a good mood, this was a big win for us,” said Adams, a Texas native who went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs in the second game.

Watertown’s last win came in a 6-2 triumph at Sherrill on July 1 as Matteson pitched a complete-game to record his second win of the season.

Since then, Watertown went 0-7-2, including a pair of ties against Rochester in a home doubleheader on Tuesday, before breaking out on Friday.

Matteson, who recently graduated at South Jefferson, has emerged as Watertown’s leadoff batter in his first season at the collegiate level.

“It’s been a lot of fun, I’ve really enjoyed playing with these guys,” Matteson said. “It’s definitely a different kind of baseball, you definitely have to show up and be ready everyday and expect failure. Because even if you’re batting .600 in high school, you’re not going to do that here, it’s just how it us. You’re facing really good pitching every day and it’s just a grind.

“Maybe you’ll get burnt out towards the end, but you’ve just got to keep showing up, keep having fun.”

“Nate, I can’t say enough about him,” Hartenstein said. “Not only is he an awesome baseball player, but he’s an awesome human, I would say he’s that All American guy. He’s got the makeup on and off the field to be spectacular when he gets to Monroe (Community College) and honestly I’m very happy we got him here in Watertown.”

In the first game on Friday, Genesee scored five runs over the first three innings and never looked back to post the win.

With the game tied 1-1 after Rodriguez singled in a run in the first for Watertown, Aidan Robinson connected on a two-out double to spark a two-run second inning and Genesee plated two more runs in the third, capped by an RBI single by Robinson to lead 5-1.

Watertown got a run back in the fifth as Matteson hit a leadoff single and scored when Adams reached on an error.

But Genesee struck for four runs in the sixth as Ortiz singled in a run and Tumero belted a first-pitch offering over the left-field wall for a three-run home run to break the game open.

Watertown will finish its season with three games on the road, including playing at Syracuse at 7 p.m. on Saturday.