Catfish Win in 10th
Cape Girardeau, June 4 – After surrendering a four-run lead late in the game, the Cape Catfish rebounded with a run in the eighth and another in the bottom of the tenth, both without the benefit of a hit, to defeat the O’Fallon Hoots 6-5 Saturday night.
The win evened the Catfish record at two wins and two losses while the Hoots fell to 1-3 on the young season.
The game, played before a paid attendance of 576 at Cape Girardeau’s Capaha Field, also featured a combined total of 32 strikeouts, 19 by Catfish pitchers and 13 by Hoots’ hurlers. Cape reliever Marshall Brown recorded the final 12 outs to earn the win while the game’s losing pitcher was Alex Adams who started the game at shortstop but was on the mound in the tenth inning when the winning run was scored.
The Catfish took an early lead, plating four runs in the second inning off O’Fallon starter Brock Barton. Catfish third baseman Lane Crowden accounted for two of those runs with a single to center field that drove in two Catfish. That was followed by an RBI single by Cape center fielder Christopher Hall and an RBI ground out by Catfish second baseman J.D. Ortiz.
The Hoots tied the game with an unearned run in the third, a solo home run by Adams in the fourth, and an unearned run and sacrifice fly in the sixth. O’Fallon took a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning thanks to an RBI triple by infielder Noah Fisher.
But then Catfish first baseman Cam Careswell led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk, advanced to second and third on wild pitches thrown by Hoots reliever Blane Besse, and then scored on a ground out by Hall, tying the game 5-5.
The Hoots failed to score in the top of the tenth, but in the bottom of the inning Catfish catcher Blake Barton was hit by a pitch. He was followed by Careswell who hit a grounder to Hoots third baseman Cole Robinson. Robinson threw wildly toward second base in an attempted force out on Barton. The ball sailed into right field allowing Barton to score the winning run all the way from first.
It was the Hoots’ only error of the game. Meanwhile, the Catfish committed three fielding miscues, all by Crowden at third base. All four of the game’s errors led to unearned runs.
“That was a crazy finish,” Catfish head coach Stephen Larkin said in a post-game interview. “You know, there’s a saying in baseball that it doesn’t matter how or when you score, just score. It doesn’t matter how it happens, just touch the plate and I’m happy with it.”
Cape’s next game is set for 5:35 p.m. Sunday in Alton, Illinois, against the Alton River Dragons.