Outlaws manager Hughes reflects on 2021 season

Aug. 4—The final record for the Oneonta Outlaws' 2021 season will read 14-21-1 and no playoff appearance. But to manager Joe Hughes, it was an unequivocal success.

One of the biggest reasons why was the simple fact that the season was played at all.

"One of the best things was having baseball back at Damaschke Field this summer," Hughes said. "It was a long time coming. The field was in great shape. It was good to be playing baseball again in the summer in Oneonta in front of a great community. It was just great to be out there again."

The Outlaws recently completed their 2021 Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) campaign that marked the first time in two years that the league was in action.

After its 2020 season was wiped out entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGCBL was able to hold a complete season that ended on Tuesday night with the Saugerties Stallions defeating the Amsterdam Mohawks to win the league championship.

It wasn't exactly a full season for the Outlaws and most of the other teams, however. Mother Nature was not on Oneonta's side this summer as Hughes' team had a dozen games either postponed or cancelled due to bad weather (the one tie was a game that was ended early due to weather that did not meet the required innings limit).

"Yeah, the rain dampened things. It hurt us, it hurt everybody a little bit," Hughes said. "But there isn't anything you can do about the rain. I told our players you've gotta remember the Casey Stengel quote: 'You win some, you lose some, some games get rained out, but you get ready for them all.'"

But despite the bad weather and the sub-.500 record, Hughes saw the 2021 season as a success for reasons that go beyond the boxscore.

"I could probably tell you a thousand and one success stories on the field," he said. "Player growth and development was off the charts. We had guys who hadn't pitched a single inning [in college]. They had to go against an Amsterdam lineup that was loaded with D-I players, and you've got to figure how to get those guys out... There's no experience that is better than that.

"I remember telling a couple of our guys, 'When you go back home and you go pitch in your league, you're not going to face a lineup like Amsterdam. It's just not gonna happen.' So if you can figure out how to compete against Amsterdam, which was the marquee team in the league, [you're going to be] very successful."

The Outlaws got off to a very slow start to the season, losing 10 of their first 11 games. Hughes chalks up the team's early struggles to many of his players simply being rusty; he noted that a few players hadn't played competitively in almost two years before this summer.

Oneonta eventually found its groove, going 8-4 down the stretch including three straight wins to end the season.

"In July, we were playing as well as anybody in the league," Hughes said.

"Everybody got better during the season," he added. "We were playing better at the end than we were at the beginning. That tells you something about how they progressed and how successful we really were."

Hughes nominated five players for the PGCBL All-Star team: first baseman Ryan Weiss, right fielder Keaton Mark, shortstop Paul Tammaro, and pitchers Matt Dubois and Will Jones.

Weiss (.347 batting average), Mark (.344), and Tammaro (.333) all finished among the league's top 12 hitters. Dubois started a team-high eight games, going 4-2 with a 3.97 ERA and 32 strikeouts. Jones, whom Hughes said didn't pitch a single inning in his college season at Northeastern University, was a key bullpen arm, posting a 3.86 ERA with 26 strikeouts in just 16 and a third innings.

Hughes pointed to the work ethic of every one of his players as why the season was so enjoyable and why the 2021 Outlaws were, in his words, one of his favorite teams he's been a part of.

"We'd have our usual group of hitters come in, the game starts at seven o'clock at night, and they're getting there at two or three in the afternoon taking early batting practice. And that was routine," he said.

Before the season even began, Hughes stated that he doesn't believe success in summer baseball is measured by wins and losses. What he saw this summer did nothing to disabuse him of that notion.

"In any coach's mind, if the team gets better and better and better as the season goes on, that's a success," he said.