Catfish pound out 13 hits and beat the River Dragons 7-3

ALTON, IL (July 13) – The Catfish won for the 28th time vs 10 losses as they pounded out 13 hits for a 7-3 victory. Dylan Peck (FSJC) threw 6 innings allowing two runs on six hits and a walk. The Catfish ace moves his record to 6-0. He has appeared in eight games, starting six of those and leads the team in innings pitched with 36.2.

On the offensive side, every starter for the Catfish had at least one hit. The Catfish fell behind in the bottom of the first as Alton’s BryceZupan (Ky Wesleyan) smashed a double into the left centerfield gap to score LaRocco (Webster Univeristy) who had also doubled, making it 1-0 River Dragons. The lead wouldn’t last long as Kolten Poorman (Eastern Illinois) mashed his first home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1. Peck would shut the River Dragons down for the next three innings, enough time for his Catfish teammates to take control of the game.

In the top of the 4th, Kaden Jeffries (Metropolitan CC), hit his second homer of the season to make it a 3-1 Catfish lead. Jeffries would end the night going 2-3 with two rbi’s, two runs scored and a walk. In the top of the 5th the Catfish would tack on four more runs. Clarke (Belmont) who was batting leadoff and playing CF in place of Chris Hall who had the night off, singled to start off the 5th for the Fish. He would steal second and score on an rbi double by McCarthy (University of Tenn Southern). Carinci (Eastern Ky) would follow that up with another double making in 2nd and 3rd with one out and the dangerous Brody Chrisman (Purdue) coming to the plate. Chrisman slashed the third double in a row into left center to score both McCarthy and Carinci. Crowden grounded out moving Carinci to third and Kolten Poorman would ground out to deep short scoring Carinci giving the Catfish a 7-1 lead and giving Peck some room to breath.

Peck gave up a single run in the 5th on a balk with a runner at 3rd but he would go six and get his sixth win of the season. Bryce Morgan (MAC) gave up a run on three hits in his two innings of relief and Sutherland (MO State) pitched a scoreless 9th striking out two. On the losing side was Alex Rodriguez (Edwardsville University) who dropped his record to 0-2. He gave up five runs on nine hits, struck out three but gave up a couple long balls.

The win took the Catfish to a league leading 28th win, two games ahead of the Paints for the best overall record in the league. The Fish sit at 6-4 in the second half and square up tonight in a double header vs the hottest team in the league, Thrillville who sit at 8-2 for the second half. The loss drops the river Dragons to 5-6 for the second half and three games behind Thrillville for the playoff spot.

Tickets for Friday night’s game will get you into both games. Come out early and catch an entire day of Catfish baseball. The park will NOT be cleared after the first game and fans can then stick around for the scheduled nightcap which will feature 3 EAGLES six pack cooler giveaway to the first 350 fans. T-Ravs will also be on hand for the evening. Tickets for Friday’s games and all Catfish home games, can be purchased through the team’s website, www.capecatfish.com.