ALTON - The Cape Catfish of Cape Girardeau, Mo. and the Alton River Dragons battled through a scoreless pitching dual for five innings, but in the sixth, Cape scored seven runs to break open the game, then added six more run in the eighth to take a 14-5 win over the River Dragons in a Prospect League baseball game played Monday night at Lloyd Hopkins Field in Gordon Moore Park.
The River Dragons dropped their sixth consecutive decision with the loss and are now 5-11 in the second half of the league's split season, remaining in fourth place in the Prairie Land Division of the Western Conference. The team's overall record in now 14-28.
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Starting pitchers Jackson Parrill of Collinsville for Alton and Noah Gadsberry for Cape threw five straight shutout innings for their clubs, but in the top of the sixth, the Catfish took the lead on a RBI single by Lane Crowden, scoring Justin Carinci, then came the big blow as Jeff Clarke hit a grand slam homer over the right-center field fence to make it 5-0 for Cape. Tucker Stockman later hit a two-run homer over the fence in left-center to make the score 7-0 and in the top of the eight, a two-run double by Kevin McCarthy, a RBI single by Landon Godsey and a three-run homer by Crowden sent the score to 13-0.
The River Dragons rallied in the home half of the eighth, starting with a RBI single by Drake Westcott of Edwardsville, then a three-run homer over the fence in right-center from Metro-East Lutheran's Erik Broekemeier and a solo homer from Victor Heredia cut the lead to 13-5. In the top of the ninth, a sacrifice fly to center by Godsey brought in McCarthy with the final run as the Catfish won 14-5.
Broekemeier had two hits, including his homer, and three RBIs to lead the River Dragons, while both Westcott and Heredia had two hits and a RBI each and Eli Hoerner had the only other hit.
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