Late rally not enough, Alton ekes past slumping Cape in shootout thriller

Cape's Walker Brodt fires a pitch during a Sunday, June 2, 2024 game between the Cape Catfish and the Jackson Rockabillys at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Cape defeated Jackson, 8-4.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Going into Alton, Illinois, for a duel with the top team in the Prospect League Western Conference’s South Division, Cape had a shot late to erase a huge early deficit but came up short, losing 7-6 in a thriller.

What looked to be an early pitchers’ duel went south in the midgame as Catfish starter Kameron Dohogne had an early exit, Alton staked a huge lead heading into the final few frames.

But a late Catfish rally added some life back into the game, led by a two-hit single from Ty Allen to force a pitching change and revive the Cape (2-5) dugout.

But, in a similar fashion to some of their struggles at Jackson in the season opener, Cape squandered a great opportunity with the tying and winning runs in scoring position.

With a three up, three down ninth inning, Alton (6-2) held off the Catfish to secure its fifth win in sixth games and further its lead on the South Division.

Three games under the even mark, Cape returns home for a Thursday night date with the Dubois County Bombers, looking to end a two-game skid.

Late Rally Not Enough

Trailing by five runs entering the top of the eighth, the Catfish weren’t done yet, and Alton was struggling to find an answer late as Cape kept clawing closer.

Against reliever Logan Geggus, the Catfish put four earned across to bring the score to 7-5 Alton, forcing a pitching change.

In relief comes Harrison Dubois, who immediately balks to make it a one-run game with runners at second and third with just one out.

Then, Cape struck out twice. Once again, the curse of the strikeout with runners in scoring position, coming back to bite the Catfish.

With another opportunity in the ninth to draw the game back up, Cape didn’t have the juice to complete the crazy comeback as Alton held on for the tight win.

Props go to the offense, putting four across in the clutch, but an early struggle with just two runs through the first seven innings and the continued mound struggles doomed Cape from the get-go.

Starter Struggles Continue

The second start of the year for local Notre Dame product Dohogne, it started out rather clean over the first few innings in a tight ballgame.

But with the Catfish leading 2-1 entering the bottom of the fourth, Dohogne revealed a chink in the armor with a leadoff double, and the River Dragons took advantage.

Entering the game with a 1.80 ERA following a solid debut against Thrillville last Friday, it tailed south in the middle innings as once again Cape failed to register a quality start.

Dohogne logged 4.1 innings pitched in the Wednesday loss, allowing three earned runs for four total scratched across as Alton rallied to take its first lead of the game.

That sub-two average blossomed all the way to 3.85, ranking behind ace Jorge Romero’s 3.00 but still leaps and bounds in front of Raymond Ochoa’s 9.95 through two starts each.

As the offense trailed early, the pitching couldn’t help stop the bleeding as Cape surrendered a healthy heaping of runs at the hands of the South Division-leading River Dragons.

Bullpen Management

Through seven games, just two players have appeared in as many as three games on the mound: Isaac Vedder and Jesse Komorowski.

The former, Vedder, has a 0.00 ERA through 3.1 appearances in three games this season, maintaining a solid reputation so far.

The latter, Komorowski, got the loss at Jackson on Tuesday night and, in his three appearances for 3.0 innings, holds an ERA of 9.00.

So, looking to pinch off Alton’s rally in the fifth inning following the exit of Dohogne, the Catfish brought in Korey Bunselmeyer for his 2024 debut, and it wasn’t exactly pretty.

Bunselmeyer surrendered three earned runs in 2.2 innings, going into a long-relief type of approach but surrendering one in the fifth and another pair in the seventh.

Walker Brodt, Drew Wedgeworth and the aforementioned Vedder all hold scoreless seasons so far with more than three innings thrown each.

In fact, through five relief innings so far, Wedgeworth, fresh out of Glendale High School, has only given up two hits as he’s shown to be a reliable arm out of the bullpen.

Moving forward, with a better feel for the pen and who some of the heroes are, there are some early signs of changes needing to be made in just who shows up to throw each night in relief.

After far too many games that have been lost simply due to pitching, Cape’s arm management becomes one of the biggest question marks now sitting three games below .500.