Another step forward
Aug. 5—By all accounts, the 2021 campaign was another success for the Owensboro RiverDawgs.
The summer collegiate baseball team finished the regular season 22-22 and reached the first round of the Ohio Valley League playoffs, marking its third consecutive trip to the postseason. With the squad's on-field production, along with the theme nights and community-oriented events they hosted throughout the summer, RiverDawgs manager Vic Evans Jr. considers it another step forward for the franchise.
"You always want to win in the playoffs or win your division, but it was a good season for us and we had a lot of fun," Evans said. "Not only that, but I think in the community, we had a lot of good things go our way.
"We had the night at Jack C. Fisher Park to coach T-ball, our canned food drive, a very successful baseball camp — all in all, we're very happy with the way the year went."
Even with last season wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, RiverDawgs officials have been pleased with the program's consistency since its inception in 2018.
"That's the goal," said Evans, who helped guide Owensboro to an OVL title in its first year and a second-place finish in the OVL East division in 2019. "We want to be in the hunt every year, and we've done that so far the last three seasons. This year, we were in the hunt until the very end.
"Our long-term goal is to build a franchise that is competitive each and every year and increase our footprint in the community. We're doing that by baby steps. Even losing a year to COVID, we figured there would be some steps back — out of sight, out of mind — but we felt we made some great strides this year."
On the field, the RiverDawgs were led offensively by Paul Coumoulos, who paced the team in batting average (.344), hits (43), home runs (5), runs batted in (23) and doubles (12). For his efforts, the Saint Leo (Fla.) standout was named to the 2021 All-OVL Team as a designated hitter. Owensboro also got quality contributions from Kyle Hogwood, the team's second-most productive hitter, who hit .293 with 23 RBIs, 17 runs, 14 stolen bases and 11 doubles.
On the mound, the RiverDawgs featured a pitching staff that included Owensboro High School product Nick Belcher (2.88 earned-run average, 21 strikeouts in 25 innings), former Breckinridge County standouts Preston Cottrell (13 strikeouts in 20 innings) and Brock Lucas (4.15 ERA, 37 strikeouts in 342/3 innings), and Kentucky Wesleyan sophomore Aric Lyons (0.42 ERA, 18 strikeouts in 212/3 innings).
With a brief offseason ahead, Evans is already eyeing improvements for next summer.
"We were really happy with how our pitching turned out," Evans said. "We'll probably look to get a couple big bats in the middle of the order — that's something we lacked a little bit this year. We'll look to improve offensively.
"We also want to improve our relationships and make new contacts with some different schools. That's something we try to do every year, just to broaden our reach and our contacts and bring in better players every year. We feel like we've already got a couple lined up next year that will be able to provide us some really nice players."
And, Evans added, it wouldn't be possible without the support his team receives from the community.
"We just want to thank the fans and our sponsors," he said. "We increased our attendance again this year, so we can't give enough thanks to the fans.
"Our in-game sponsors really came on board this year, and a special thanks goes to our title sponsor, Foreman Watson Holtrey, and Eagles Club 4168. With sponsors like them, it makes the season so much easier to have. We can't thank them enough."
