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Offensive slump dooms Cape in rallying Tuesday home loss to REX Baseball
Looking for a revenge win following a Friday home loss to the REX, the Catfish couldn’t stop Terre Haute’s late momentum in a double-down 6-3 defeat at home.
In a tight affair early, Cape drew first blood with a three-run lead in a big second but couldn’t keep the iron hot down the stretch.
The Catfish allowed Terre Haute to not just claw back into the matchup but take a late stranglehold with three runs in both the fifth and seventh innings.
Now 4-8 on the year, Cape’s early struggles have oftentimes fallen on some untimely pitching, but it felt like a little bit of everything on Tuesday night.
Quietly falling in the ninth, the Catfish squandered a chance to put together their first true win streak of the year with a long slump at the plate.
The first of three home games that could either send Cape shooting back in the right direction or falling further down the season standings, it was a tremendous result either way, and the REX took advantage.
“Our competitive nature was not there tonight, for whatever reason,” Catfish coach Phil Butler said. “I can't put it on any one person, or any one player or anything like that. It's it's the nature of baseball, quite frankly.
“If we want to get to where we want to go, which is winning jewelry at the end of the season, that competitive nature has to come out every single night.”
Midgame Drag
After a phenomenal first four innings from Kameron Dohogne, it came crashing down in the fifth after taking an early-inning shot off the elbow and a shot off his foot in the fifth.
A base hit up the middle scored the first run, and with Dohogne looking to hold it there with a runner on, Oscar Pegg blasted a two-run homer to draw the game up at three.
Hot en route to an eccentric start and perhaps even a quality start, it came crashing down as some wear and tear took Dohogne to the wire.
One hard barrel from Pegg later and it undid the three-run lead that the Catfish had built early, further continuing the season-opening woes that the Fish have had with starting pitching.
“He does it in an unconventional way,” Butler said of Dohogne. “Kam’s a competitor. If there's one guy on the team that I'm never worried about his competitive nature, it’s him.”
After a nice streak in the past week, allowing two-or-less runs through the first six innings in three consecutive games, it’s now back-to-back games reaching that threshold of three.
Korey Bunselmeyer gave Cape a scoreless sixth, but with two runners on in the seventh, the Illinois senior committed a two-run error to give Terre Haute its first lead of the game.
“He did a great job tonight,” Butler said of Dohogne. “They got to him a little bit there at the end of his start, but I mean it is what it is. It’s gonna happen.”
Offense Runs Dry
When the Catfish put three runs past REX starter Brett Sherrard in the second inning, the general vibe was that Cape was going to have a breakout day at the plate.
Following a 12-run outing at O’Fallon on Sunday night, with a day of rest in between, the Catfish got that hot start but laid a goose egg the rest of the way.
A disappointing end to an exciting start, in which Jackson’s Lane Crowden, Quinton Borders and Henley Parker notched the game’s opening three hits all in a row.
Putting three runs past in just a couple of minutes, that three-run opening lead was turned on its head going down the stretch, and it’s not the first time that the well has run dry this year.
When the runs started trickling in late, the Catfish didn’t have a response, and Terre Haute took full advantage as the momentum continued to tick in the REX direction.
“They just gotta get out and compete,” Butler said. “It’s not mechanical or anything like that, it's just a lack of getting in the box prepared to compete against guys that are against other grown men.
“They're going out there to try to beat you.”
Their fourth time scoring three-or-less runs in a game this year, the Catfish are just 1-3 in those games as the offense doesn’t often fail to accrue runs but the defense frequently puts them in shootouts.
Tuesday’s loss showed the Catfish don’t always have fuel for the fire, and the REX scored six consecutive to cruise to the midweek winner on the road.
Homestand Outlook
Part of a three-game homestand, the Catfish dropped the opener but have two upcoming opportunities to right the ship.
Some tough teams are coming into town, with an in-division rivalry with South Division-leading Thrillville on Wednesday followed by Danville, leader of the Eastern Conference’s Central Division.
Cape’s shown that it can compete with some tough teams already this year, with a 1-0 lead on the Thrillbillies in the season series after a win at Capaha Field earlier this year.
But with the record stooping to just 4-8 after Tuesday’s loss, there’s some heat riding on Wednesday’s matchup after a big disappointment down the stretch.
Thrillville has won six of its past seven games heading into the Cape matchup, coming in with a lot of momentum in a divisional road clash.
With a win Wednesday, it could spell a turn in the right direction as the Catfish are creeping toward having its contending squad back.
“From what I've seen, we're the best team in this league,” Butler said. “It just hasn't clicked on all facets yet.
“As soon as we do that, as soon as these guys come ready to play, there's not anybody that should beat us at any given time.”