Cape Catfish

America is in the midst of football season right now, but a few months ago, the numbers showed that baseball weighed heavy on their minds, particularly throughout the Midwest.

The Thrillbillies entered the Prospect League playoffs wearing red caps with Smith's uniform number, 24. In his honor, they defeated the Cape Catfish 10-5 in a major upset to win the Prairie Land Division championship on Sunday, August 6, at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau.

The Cape Catfish will conclude the 2023 Prospect League season on Saturday against the Alton River Dragons at Capaha Field. Jackson High School grad and Catfish intern Isaac Respondek will throw out the first pitch and that is all you need to know about that game. Win or lose, the Catfish will end the season with the best overall record in the Western Conference, if not the entire league...

A pair of 10-run games and easy wins over the past weekend didn't get the Cape Catfish any closer to the top of the second-half Prairie Land Division standings. It also doesn't matter. "I think the general majority of people have stayed consistent, stayed true with the energy, have been enjoying everything," Catfish left fielder Brody Chrisman said. "I think that's what we're going to do as we go forward."...

When the Cape Catfish pair pitcher Jorge Romero and catcher Tucker Stockman together, good things are a distinct possibility.

The Cape Catfish leadership has emphasized signing players from Southeast Missouri, though with the caveat, those players need to be able to help the team win games.

At any given Cape Catfish game, you can find the architect of success for the franchise standing atop the hill glancing over a baseball diamond that he has carried in his heart since he was a boy.

The Cape Catfish have stumbled with some frequency of late, and Friday’s 9-7 loss to Quincy was just the latest example of that.

“Don’t you know, pump it up.” “You got to pump it up.” Short lyrics of a euro-pop song that came out in 2004 blare through the speakers of Capaha Field. Right on cue, the Cape Catfish players start raising their arms one by one to the beat of the music...

Young Cape Catfish pitcher Jordan Riley blames himself for “thinking too much” – at times – on the mound. However, he probably should tap the brakes on that self-criticism, given how the 18-year-old straight out of high school has adjusted to the next level of the game this summer.

The Cape Catfish offer families throughout the Cape Girardeau area an opportunity to serve as “host families” for the players during the summer months in which the team is playing.

Noah Gadberry continued the recent trend of Cape Catfish starting pitchers producing results at Capaha Field. The Norte Dame alum gave up only two hits with three strikeouts in five scoreless innings in a no-decision, as the Catfish won a see-saw showdown against the Normal Cornbelters 8-4 on Saturday...

As he patrols the left side of the Cape Catfish infield, third baseman/shortstop Lane Crowden can’t afford to take his eye off the action for a second. However, that hasn’t always been the case.

Dante Zamudio has had a mercurial journey throughout his baseball career. However, a place of stability for the California native has been Cape Girardeau, and more specifically, the home of Cory and Kristen Daniel of Jackson. “The answer for both,” Zamudio said of playing a second season with the Cape Catfish, as well as living with the Daniel family, “is that they feel like family.”

The Cape Catfish begin a stretch of games on Friday in which the team will play four consecutive contests at Capaha Field, and seven of the next eight at home. There are a multitude of good things about this scheduling quirk, none more significant than the Catfish pitchers have proven to be dominant this season, but particularly so at home.

Quinton Borders hit his first home run as a Catfish to highlight a causal 9-0 win over the Alton River Dragons on Wednesday in Capaha Field. It was a sequence of emotions for the third baseman. He felt like it had a chance immediately after making contact. Hope seemed to dip as soon as the left fielder stopped. Then he turned around towards the outfield wall and started chasing...

For the Cape Catfish, it was another win. For one newcomer, it was something special. Cameron Marchi, one of Jackson High School's many successful athletic alums, closed out the Catfish's 5-0 win over the Clinton Luberkings on Tuesday at Capaha Field...

The dog days of summer are here for the Cape Catfish, as the team will play seven games over the next week, starting with a rare 2:05 p.m. game on Wednesday at Capaha Field against O’Fallon (21-20 overall, 6-8 second-half). With so many games crammed into the final weeks of the season (compounded by makeup games), the squad is going to need as much quality pitching as possible down the stretch.

It was a shot in the dark. In his contact list, Notre Dame alum Austin Gast had the phone number of Steve Bieser, the former Missouri and Southeast Missouri baseball coach who was recently hired as the Jacksonville State skipper. One text initiate the process that led him to join the Gamecocks...

There have been zero questions raised as to how first-year manager Scott Little has guided the Cape Catfish this summer.

The Cape Catfish dropped a pair of games to Thrillville on Friday at Capaha Field, which wasn’t a positive thing. However, on the bright side, Catfish pitcher Kam Dohogne had one of his better outings in relief during the opening game of the doubleheader, so that was something to feel good about.

If you’ve seen Curry Sutherland play, you wouldn’t know he just graduated high school in May. The infielder/pitcher has been a steady piece for the Cape Catfish this summer and has had a hand in the 27-10 season for the Catfish thus far. Sutherland, a Missouri State commit and a Rogersville, Missouri native, said the summer is going to be key for his development heading into his freshman campaign...

In Wednesday night’s contest with Rex Baseball, one run would have been enough for the Cape Catfish in their 6-0 win. By all accounts, for the majority of the game, it appeared one run was all the Catfish would get. Justin Carinci drove in Jeff Clarke with a single in the bottom of the first to make it 1-0...

It’s taken a few games for Cape Catfish catcher Cal Kilgore to find his footing this summer, which is understandable, given he spent this past spring at Arkansas as a redshirt sophomore not playing.

The Cape Catfish have taken the Prospect League by storm this summer as they have raced out to a 26-9 start as they have begun second-half play. While fans see the success on the field, the lead-up to that success also takes place away from the field as well...

It was Jorge Romero’s world and the O’Fallon Hoots were living in it on Monday night. From the first pitch, Romero had command of all of his pitches as he diced through the Hoots lineup over six scoreless innings. Romero was backed up by the Catfish offense that managed to scratch across seven runs in a 7-0 win over the Hoots at Capaha Field...

Rule No. 1 to young journalists: When covering a summer-league baseball game, the STORIES within the game are what is important, NOT the actual game itself. As it relates to the Cape Catfish, yeah, they fell to Springfield 7-4 on Sunday in front of 711 fans at Capaha Field. There you go. That is the game info. But if you want to know what really caught the attention of those in attendance, it was Scott Shuler and Kevin Balfe taking the diamond for the Catfish at second and first base, respectively.

If Friday’s outing on the mound for the Cape Catfish was indeed Caden Bogenpohl’s final performance in front of his hometown crowd, then “he was phenomenal,” according to Catfish General Manager Mark Hogan.

In what was a back-and-forth affair, the Cape Catfish came out on top with an 8-7 win over the Jackson Rockabillys on Wednesday night at Capaha Field. With the Catfish trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the 8th, Belmont’s Landon Godsey ripped a solo home run to tie the game at 7 and keep the Catfish alive...

The 2023 rendition of the Cape Catfish features a talented group of catchers. All three of Landon Godsey, Cal Kilgore and Tucker Stockman bring their own unique skill set to the Catfish. Stockman, who attends the University of Southern Mississippi, said the group is close...

The Cape Catfish close out the first half of the Prospect League season with the inaugural “Battle of the Border” trophy after a series-clinching 4-1 win over the Thrillville Thrillbillies on Sunday in Marion, Illinois. The Catfish (22-6) got off to a surprising 12-game winning streak to start the season and rode it to a first-place position in the league’s Prairie Land Division. ...

The success keeps on coming for the Cape Catfish in 2023. The Catfish recently clinched a playoff spot by winning the Prairie Land Division first half that ends July 2. “It’s very exciting,” Catfish outfielder Chris Hall said. “We didn’t get a chance to do it last year but we started off really strong and I was just really excited that we did it.”...

After losing four games in a row, the Cape Catfish struck back with a vengeance and routed the Thrillville Thrillbillies 8-5 on Thursday at Capaha Field. "We didn't let it get to us in our hearts," said Catfish catcher Landon Godsey on the losing skid. "Every day we came out here and played our best."...

All night it felt like the Cape Catfish were about to break the game open. Chance after chance was squandered away as the Catfish fell 4-3 at the hands of the Jackson Rockabillys on Tuesday at Capaha Field. “We just didn’t get it done,” Catfish outfielder Jeff Clarke said. “We didn’t get that big hit we needed.”...

The Thrillville Thrillbillies picked a poor time to commence a rivalry with the Cape Catfish.

The Cape Catfish lost its third game in 22 outings this summer on Saturday, as it fell to Alton 5-1 at Capaha Field in front of 677 fans. The defeat proved that, yes, it is possible for the Catfish to lose a game, though it is an extreme rarity.

Of the 21 games played by the Cape Catfish this summer, only six have been decided by two runs or less, and at 19-2 on the summer, the Catfish hasn’t shown a propensity for losing very often, regardless of the score.

Injuries have held Arkansas catcher Cal Kilgore back recently, but he’s hoping to get back to himself this summer with the Cape Catfish. Kilgore began his collegiate career at New Mexico State as he played in 35 games his freshman year with the Aggies...

While the storylines of the 2023 Cape Catfish season have been dominated by the top four hitters in the lineup, quietly producing has been former Jackson Indian and Crowder College infielder Quinton Borders. Borders is batting .364 on the season in seven games. He also has a .481 on-base percentage and has driven in five runs this season...

The Cape Catfish bats continued to stay hot as they downed the Burlington Bees 12-3 on Wednesday at Capaha Field. After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, the Catfish would respond with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the first courtesy of an RBI double from Belmont’s Jeff Clarke and a two-run single by Purdue’s Brody Chrisman...

The Cape Catfish rebounded from their second loss of the season by defeating the Thrillville Thrillbillies 9-5 on Monday in Capaha Field. The Catfish were down early after Kaleb Herbert led off the game with a home run to highlight a three-run first-inning barrage...

Day after day Justin Carinci continues to produce for the Cape Catfish. The shortstop has played in 16 of 17 games and boasts a .415 batting average with 27 hits in 65 at-bats in 2023. Carinci joins the Catfish after spending the last two collegiate seasons at Mineral Area College where he played in 105 games, hit .371, stole 60 bases, and drove in 53 runs...

When a baseball team wins 14 of its initial 16 games, one would expect that it would be executing well in all facets of the game. That is certainly the case with the Cape Catfish, who have made shambles of the Prospect League this summer in historic fashion, despite suffering its second loss of the summer on Sunday (4-3 at Quincy).

For Jude Putz, his baseball career has been well-traveled already. The redshirt freshman is one of the new faces with the Cape Catfish this summer and he’s gotten off to a fast start. Putz is batting .346 with a .433 on-base percentage and he has yet to strike out so far in 2023...

After having his first season at the division one level cut short by injury, Jackson native Lane Crowden is looking to get back to his old self with the Cape Catfish. Crowden joined the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles this season after spending two seasons at Three Rivers College with the Raiders...

How quickly did the best start in Prospect League history come to an end? In less than three seconds.

If you’ve attended a Cape Catfish game in the last three years chances are you know the name Kolten Poorman. Whether you remember him for his big base hits in a key spot or for being the guy all the kids in the crowd are drawn to, Poorman has made an impact with the Catfish both on and off the field...

The Cape Catfish extended their season-opening winning streak to 12 with a 7-3 win over the Jackson Rockabillies on Tuesday at Capaha Field, despite being out-hit 11-5. The Catfish didn't need their bats to drive in runs this time around. With a flurry of walks and wild pitches, the Catfish turned the basepaths into a conga line, scoring four runs in the first inning without recording a single hit...

Monday night’s matchup between the Cape Catfish and the Thrillville Thrillbillies had a flare for the dramatic. With the Catfish trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th, Jeff Clarke (Belmont) stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and nobody out...