Friday’s home loss spoiled what could have been a record-setting night for the Owensboro RiverDawgs, but they are still on the verge of reaching two franchise milestones.
First up will be the record for most coaching wins. Currently tied with Allen Cox at 75, Owensboro manager Vic Evans needs only one victory to set the new benchmark.
“For me personally, it just means I’ve coached a lot of years here,” Evans said. “But it also means I’ve had good players. It just goes back to them. There’s really not a whole lot that I do — it’s more about the players.”
Appropriately pointed out by Evans, the next milestone is a team achievement, as the RiverDawgs are four wins away from 300 regular season victories.
“For the franchise, it’s a good thing,” he said. “It goes to show that one, we’ve played a long time here, and two, they’ve played good baseball. That’s always important.”
With a roster that changes from year to year, Evans said reaching 300 wins is probably not as meaningful to the players as it is to those who helped lay the foundation for Owensboro’s summer collegiate team.
“The guys will enjoy it, but it’s probably more for the people that came before me,” he said. “It’s big for the guys that have been with it since the very beginning and who have volunteered through the years and put a lot of work in to make an OVL team in Owensboro happen.”
For the players, the mindset is all about beating the next opponent.
“I don’t know how aware of (getting to 300) they are,” Evans said. “They are more worried about getting tomorrow and keep racking up wins.”
Though they lost 7-3 to the Ohio Valley League leader Hoptown Hoppers (12-6) on Friday, the RiverDawgs (10-6) are still the East Division leaders. Even without all the kinks ironed out, they’ve managed to find ways to win.
“We still have to make some adjustments on the mound,” Evans said. “We’re still putting too many people on and hurting ourselves, but we’re getting there.”
Constant rain in recent weeks caused significant changes to the schedule, and after a long bout with minimal action the RiverDawgs will hardly see a break for two weeks.
Evans said they will just need to stick to basics and rely on what works to push through the upcoming busy stretch.
“We’ve got 13 games in 13 days, so it’s going to be important for our guys to take care of themselves off the field,” he said. “I know they all think they’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but even they wear down a little bit. We just have to do what we’ve done to get to 10-6 and keep working.”
