7/4/2025
By George Lucas
For the first time in four July 4th battles, the Johnstown Mill Rats fell, this time to the Cape Catfish.
It was also the first-ever meeting between the two teams, and the Fish dropped the Rats 11-7.
Cape (Girardeau, MO) wasted no time getting on the board pushing a run across in the top of the first. Johnstown answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning.
The Catfish went up again 2-1 in the third, but once again, the Mill Rats answered to tie the game at 2-all.
Cape plated three in the fourth to forge ahead 4-2. Then, the Catfish sent 12 hitters to the plate in the seventh resulting in six runs and an 11-2 lead.
That lead held up until the eighth. Johnstown batted around and notched four runs in the inning to close the gap to 11-6. The Mill Rats added a single tally in the ninth, but that was as close as they would get as the final scored was set at 11-7.
Johnstown stranded 16 baserunners while the Catfish left just 8.
Isaias Espiritusanto nabbed the loss for Johnstown, falling to 2-2 on the season.
Cape’s Zach Herb, a sophomore at Seton Hill University, earned the win to improve to 3-2 on the year.
The Mill Rats fall to 3-4 in the second half, good for second place in the Northeast Division while the win improves the Catfish to 4-2 and into a first place tie with the O’Fallon Hoots in the South.
Johnstown and Cape will battle again Saturday at 7:00pm at Sargent’s Stadium at The Point.