Watertown Eliminates Indians

by Scott Montesano
Rome Indians Marketing Intern

(Watertown, NY) The Rome Indians will not get a chance to defend their NYCBL championship in the 2002 playoffs.

The Watertown Wizards ended the Indians hopes of a miracle last week dash towards a playoff spot with a 3-1 win Thursday night before 195 fans at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

The loss, along with Mohawk Valley’s win over Schenectady Thursday afternoon, mathematically eliminates the Indians from playoff contention.

A week ago the Indians were only a .5 behind Mohawk Valley, however virtually nothing has gone wrong for the Red Legs since. Mohawk Valley has won 7 of 9, including six one-run decisions.

Still, despite Mohawk Valley’s hot streak, the Indians were technically alive until the loss on Thursday night.

Indians starting pitcher David Rodriguez held Watertown to only three hits. However, the Wizards took advantage of three errors and three wild pitches to score three unearned runs and give Rodriguez the set back.

Meanwhile, Ryan Fecteau scattered six Indians hits over 8.1 innings to get the win for Watertown. Mike Halloran induced a game ending double play grounder to pick up the save.

The Wizards scored first in the bottom of the first inning when Chis Zaccaro came home from third on a wild pitch.

Rome tied the game 1-1 in the fourth when Jeremy O’Neill scored from third on an infield ground out.

Watertown scored the only other run they would need in the seventh. Eric Salinas reached on an infield error, and then moved to third base on another infield error. Salinas eventually scored the winning run on an infield fielder’s choice.

A wild pitch in the eighth inning that scored Eric Meacham, closed out the scoring. Meacham finished with two of Watertown’s three hits, helping to cap off the Massena, NY native’s final game in Watertown.

For the Indians, O’Neill and Matt Devins each had two hits.

This will be the first time since 1999 that the Indians will not be in the playoffs.

While the playoffs are a thing of the past, Rome still has a chance to finish at or above .500. If the Indians accomplish that feat, it will be the first time the Indians franchise will have finished at or above .500 for three consecutive seasons since joining the NYCBL in 1986.

Rome travels to Schenectady for a doubleheader at 4pm on Friday. On Saturday the Indians go to Little Falls to play Mohawk Valley at 7pm, before hosting the Red Legs in the home finale Sunday afternoon at 1pm.

The season finale is scheduled for Monday afternoon in Cortland.

Box Scores

WP: Ryan Fecteau
LP: David Rodriguez
S: Mike Halloran

2B: Rome – Jeremy O’Neill

Time: 2:25

Rome (16-18) Watertown (13-25)