On the heels of its longest winning streak of the season, Cape suffered a hefty loss at Springfield on Thursday night with a 7-2 final to bring its three-game run to a close.

Against one of the less successful teams in the Prospect League’s early goings, an early tie game came crashing down as Springfield put six past in the fifth to easily cruise into the win.

Outside of that nightmare fifth inning, the Catfish actually managed to outscore Springfield 2-1 in the ballgame, but you can’t erase a team’s explosive inning, and the Lucky Horseshoes capitalized.

The second game of a five-game road stand for the Fish, making their way through Illinois up and through the great state of Iowa, it’s been a mixed back so far.

After a wild comeback winner against O’Fallon on Wednesday night, the vibes came crashing down in a hefty loss to Springfield, tied for Cape’s worst loss of the season by margin.

Throwing three pitchers before even recording an out in the fifth, Cape’s recent bullpen successes came crashing down, and it weighed heavy on the recent successes of the Catfish.

Arm Production

For what it’s worth, Raymond Ochoa, despite the loss, pitched a solid game to open it up for the Catfish. His four innings thrown with just one run surrendered on three hits was a phenomenal opener.

Behind him, Bryce Kemper and Will Richardson couldn’t record outs in the fifth, and by the time Jesse Komoroski recorded the innings first out, the 1-1 game had swelled to a 7-1 lead for the Horseshoes.

What’s largely been a strength of the Catfish this year, the bullpen made some harsh mistakes in the fifth, with both Lopez and Richardson earning rough grades in the box score.

Lopez saw four runs cross, two earned, while Richardson saw two come across with both earned as the opening arms in the fifth both struggled mightily against 5-13 Springfield.

Lopez’s start to the fifth in relief for Ochoa saw him throw for three walks and a hit, never recording an out before the Fish turned to the redshirt freshman Richardson.

Richardson had an uptick in his production recently, with a solid couple of outings over the past week to bring his ERA down below the 3.00 line entering the matchup.

But without even recording an out, Springfield put two past him as his control issues flared up again with two walks and a hit-by-pitch surrendered.

Moving into the back half of the road trip, the Catfish need production from both sides of the pitching machine to grab wins, with the offense often putting up big numbers but rarely enough to make up for seven runs allowed.

On the brighter side of things, which might go unnoticed, Cameron Marchi threw an impressive three innings from the sixth to the eighth to close out the night for Cape.

He gave up just a walk through those three innings, keeping Springfield from adding on to its already massive lead as the bullpen, largely through him, locked it down over the final few frames.

Offensive Drag

A recent string of offensive success has helped Cape dictate its winning run of late, but Thursday’s contest didn’t see a ton of ducks on the pond.

The Catfish finished the game with four hits and four walks, with Crowden’s two steals in the fifth working to bring the tying run around before Springfield’s breakout bottom five.

Slower days at the plate happen, but unfortunately for Cape, that fifth was killer at the end of the day as it turned into a shootout-type contest and Cape didn’t have the firepower to compete.

JJ Williams continued his recent stretch of success, hitting once and driving in a run while also drawing a walk in the loss.

Wes Gingerich, continuing the legacy line of Purdue ballplayers to come through Cape, extended his hitting streak to two with a Thursday single, coming in to score on an eight-inning sacrifice.

Batters two through four all produced hits in the loss, with a solid effort at the top of the order, but it wasn’t nearly enough to be able to make up for a fifth-inning onslaught from the Horseshoes.

Moving forward, with a two-game stint in Iowa upcoming, that offense will need to turn up the heat to compete with a tough Clinton squad.

Two Games in Clinton

Nearly halfway through the longest road trip of the season for the Catfish, the upcoming two-day stay in Clinton, Iowa, is set to be a tough matchup in the Hawkeye State.

Clinton ranks sixth in both team batting average and team earned-run average on the season, proving to be a reliable two-way threat.

That’s gotten the LumberKings to second place in the Western Conference’s Northwest Division, sitting a few games back of the powerful Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp.

With Friday and Saturday game’s against the LumberKings, two of the league’s top pitching staffs go up against each other in a showdown between Western Conference hopefuls.

Clinton leads the league in runs allowed, with an impressive 91 runs surrender through 17 games.

Meanwhile, Cape leads the Prospect League in ERA with a 3.92, lowest among the 18-team league by a whopping 0.72 runs.

With the hopes of grabbing the South Division’s first-half title all but gone at this point, Cape’s just looking to right the ship ahead of a big run in the second half.

With a two-game stint in Clinton, it could be a great time to do some soul-searching against a tough foe out of the rival Northwest Division.