Catfish Hold On For 8-7 Win Over River Dragons

Recap courtesy of the Cape Catfish:

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – After two unscheduled days off due to a rainout Sunday and a power outage Monday, the Cape Catfish were looking for a fresh "restart" and an end to their six-game losing streak Tuesday against the Alton River Dragons.

And the time off may have helped as the Catfish scored eight runs, built up a five-run lead, and held on for an 8-7 win, ending their six-game losing streak.

Alton opened the scoring in the second when second baseman Noah Bush (Iowa Western Community College) hit a soft grounder to Catfish starting pitcher Marshall Brown (Arkansas Tech) who threw the ball over first baseman Cam Careswell's head and into foul territory along the right field fence allowing Bush to reach third. He scored when the next batter, Kaskaskia College's Bryce Zupan reached on a throwing error by Catfish shortstop Danny Sperling (Southeast Missouri State).

Cape tied the game in the fourth when SEMO State's Josh Cameron hit a one-out single to right, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch.

The Catfish took the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Cameron knocked a single to center driving in Dante Zamudio (West Virginia State University) who had singled earlier in the inning.

Alton picked up a pair of two-out RBI singles in the eighth inning by Bush and Blake Guerin (University of Iowa) off Catfish reliever Brayden Polzien (Buena Vista University)

But then in the bottom of the eighth the Catfish loaded the bases thanks to a pair of walks and a hit batter. The next batter, Chris Hall (Florida State College at Jacksonville), doubled to drive in the runners on second and third.

The next three Catfish batters walked to force in two more runs and then with one out Zamudio was credited with an RBI when he hit a sharp grounder off the first baseman's glove, deflecting it to the second baseman who got a force out at second. When the dust settled Catfish had an 8-3 lead.

Although the Catfish took a five-run lead into the ninth inning, the River Dragons battled back, loading the bases with a two-out hit and a pair of walks before Marcus Heusohn (Iowa Western Community College) smashed a three-RBI triple off Catfish reliever Austin Brock (Arkansas State) to make the score 8-6.

And then, with Dragon runners on first and third, Bush hit a bloop single to right, driving in the runner on third to pull to within a run, but the game ended when Catfish right fielder Khyle Radcliffe threw home and catcher Ty Stauss (SEMO State) applied a perfect tag on the runner trying to score from first to end the game.

Austin Brock (Arkansas State University) picked up the win (2-1) while Kalen Reardon (Lewis and Clark Community College) was tagged with the loss (1-1).

The Catfish travel to Quincy Wednesday to take on the Gems in a 6:35 p.m. game before returning to Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau Thursday to finish Saturday night's suspended game against the Terre Haute REX before playing REX in a regularly-scheduled game set for 6:35 game that evening.