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CATFISH BATS ICE COLD IN THE OPENER

JACKSON, TN (May 29th, 2024)

There will be no 12-0 start to the Catfish season in 2024, the Jackson Rockabillys made sure of that. A team the Catfish dominated a year ago draws first blood with a 3-0 win at their place on Wednesday night. Both teams struggled at the plate but in the end the Jackson staff was just a little better than the Catfish.

The Catfish were one of two teams who had Tuesday night off so this was the opening game for the Catfish. The pitching staff picked up where they left off last summer with Romero pitching 4 shutout innings. He left with the score knotted at 0-0. Marchi, who played for the Catfish last summer held that score until the 7th when he was touched for a run. The Catfish trailed 1-0 going into the 8th when for the second time they had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. last summer, they would have pounded Jackson in those situations, not so Wednesday. Catfish hitters were 0-13 with runners in scoring position.

The Catfish gave up two more runs in the 8th and then struck out three times to end the ballgame. “We had plenty of chances, we just couldn’t get that big hit,” said Catfish head coach Phil Butler. “We’ll lace em’ back up and try to get our first win in our opener tomorrow night.” Catfish pitchers only gave up four hits but they gave up eight walks and in the end that’s what did the staff in. Marchi was the tough luck loser in the game but all in all the staff looked good.

The Catfish ended the night with only four base hits but struck out 14 times. To be fair, the Catfish have only 18 active players on their roster suited up as they have half their roster still playing or coming in the next few weeks so this team will look much different in a week or two. It does give the new coaching staff a chance to look at some younger guys and guys who hadn’t had a lot of live AB’s yet in college. “We started a young man at 1B tonight who is on our roster as a pitcher”, said Phil Butler, head coach of the Catfish. “He played there in high school as a two-way guy and we are short handed so you do what you have to do.”

It won’t get any easier the next 4 days as The Full Count Rythmn, one of the two new ball clubs in the Prospect League, come to Cape for the home Opener Thursday night. FCR came from behind to beat Dubois County 8-7 to get their first win this season and they have a full 40 man roster that is very talented. Friday night in Cape, Thrillville comes in. The team that ended the Catfish season last summer beat the Hoots 13-1 tonight to win their first game of the season. Then the Catfish head back to Jackson to try and get a little revenge on saturday before they end their first week of 2024 at home Sunday afternoon against the same Rockabillys.

Grab your tickets as the park will be packed the next couple of nights. Capecatfish.com is the easiest way to score tickets.