Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Catfish Lose, Columbus Wins

Go Catfish!The Columbus Catfish dropped a one-run game to the Augusta Greenjackets (Giants) tonight, 9-8. And with the loss, were officially eliminated from the playoff picture.

But not all the news was bad. Today, the Catfish signed an agreement with the city of Columbus to play in town another three years.

There had been rumors around town and in the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper that the Catfish were moving to the Captial City. But the Catfish are staying in Columbus.

Previously, I've made my feelings known that I'm thrilled we have a pro baseball team here, but would not be surprised if we lost the team to a city that would support it better than Columbus does. But, although they couldn't tell me anything, Catfish staff had too much of an upbeat attitude about the team for me to believe the rumors. And, sure enough, negotiations between the team and the city paid off.

So, unless I get hit by a bus or something, I expect I'll be attending another 210 home games during the next three years. And, who knows? I might just blog about those games.

More on tonight's loss from the Columbus Catfish:


Ryan Carter Homers Again but Fish Fall to Augusta 9-8
Carter Homers in Third Straight Game but Fish Come Up a Run Short in Late Rally

COLUMBUS, GA-LF Ryan Carter had a two-run triple and a three-run home run tonight but the Augusta GreenJackets scored seven runs in the third inning and beat the Columbus Catfish 9-8 at Golden Park in the opener of a four-game series. Carter has gone deep in three straight games and leads the Catfish with 13 round-trippers despite playing in just 53 games, hitting .344 in August with 9 HR and 30 RBI. He has 11 RBI in the last five games. The Fish rallied to within a run down 9-4 in the eighth, but stranded the tying run at first in the ninth inning. 3B David Nicholson, CF Ryan Russ, and 1B Dan Batz all had three-hit games for the Fish, with Batz reaching in all five plate appearances. With just seven games left in 2005, the Fish are 7.0 games back of 1st place Kannapolis with a 29-31 second half record (57-72 overall).

Columbus took a 3-0 lead in the first against Augusta starter RHP Darren Sack with two outs when Carter tripled home two and CF Ryan Russ drove home another with an RBI double. Against Catfish starter RHP Chris Malone in the third inning, the first seven Augusta hitters reached safely, with RF Brian Horwitz tying the game with a two-run single, DH Carlos Sosa giving Augusta the lead with an RBI single, and 3B Simon Klink capping the inning with a three-run homer. Klink's HR was the first Augusta longball against Columbus in 13 games this season.

With a 9-4 deficit in the eighth, the Catfish rallied with the bases full and one out. C Chris Westervelt's RBI groundout made it 9-5 Augusta, while Carter's blast to left drove home three and cut the Augusta lead to 9-8. With two outs in the ninth inning, 2B Brandon Carter singled to bring the winning run to the plate, but the Fish could not convert in the 9-8 loss.

Tomorrow the Fish and GreenJackets will play a doubleheader starting at 6:00 PM at Golden Park. RHP Arismendy Castillo and RHP Jordan Pratt are the announced starters for the Fish.

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