The Watertown High baseball team stumbled out of the gates against their fiercest rival, falling to Belmont in their season opener, 9-2, Tuesday at Victory Field.

Marauder ace Cole Bartels was dominant, shutting down the Raiders from start to finish. With his fastball topping 90 miles per hour in the early stages, Belmont’s star righthander racked up 14 strikeouts in just six innings, only surrendering one earned run.

Bartels was dealing early on, striking out the first six hitters he faced, and then two more in the third inning.

The lone blemish on Bartels’s outing came in the fourth inning, when Raider junior Greg Yeghishyan tripled to deep right-center, driving in Andrew Massarotti.

That tally put only a small dent in Belmont’s lead, as the scoreboard read, 7-1, in the visitor’s favor after four innings.

Massarotti’s afternoon on the mound was a short one, as the Marauders jumped on the Watertown senior early, putting three runs on the board in the first inning. Massarotti left the game after two innings after allowing six runs, though defensive mistakes led to three of those being unearned.

After Massarotti was pulled with no outs in the third, senior Jimmy McDonald took over and was strong in relief, allowing two earned runs in four innings of work.

Down 9-1 going into the bottom of the final frame, the Raiders found one last offensive spark with Steve Mey’s double to right-center. Mey would later come in to score, but it was far too little too late, as the Marauders closed out the 9-2 win.

The Raiders try to earn their first win Wednesday, April 8, against West Roxbury in the second leg of their three-game homestand to start the 2015 campaign.

–April 7, 2015–