Doggy Paddlers fall to Catfish in Western Conference championship
Published 10:17 pm Tuesday, August 4, 2026
CAPE GIRARDEAU – It’s been a season filled with exhilarating highs and some disappointing lows for the Doggy Paddlers.
Unfortunately for Quincy, Tuesday night’s ending fell into the latter as their exciting – yet often rollercoaster season – came to an end with an 8-5 loss to the Cape Catfish in the Prospect League’s Western Conference Championship at Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau.
Despite a Kamryn Link homer in the top of the ninth inning that narrowed the deficit for Quincy, the Catfish’s run dominance in the first, second and fourth innings was the difference in the game that saw the Doggy Paddlers outhit Cape Girardeau 10-8.
The Catfish will now take on the Terre Haute Rex in the best-of-three Prospect League Championship series that begins Thursday night. The Rex punched their ticket to the finals by virtue of their 11-5 victory over Lafayette on the road in the Eastern Conference Championship game Tuesday evening.
The Doggy Paddlers actually got on the scoreboard first as Juan Concepcion and Nick Gonzales both scored in the first inning. That was followed by seven unanswered runs from the Catfish that put the distance between the two fairly quickly, as the home squad scored three runs in the bottom of the first, two in the second and two more in the bottom of the fourth to make it 7-2 by the end of the first five innings.
The Catfish made it 8-2 with another score in the bottom of the sixth, but Quincy was able to add to its total in the top of the seventh as an Ignacio Gonzalez double to center allowed Nick Griffith to get to home plate. Another Gonzalez at bat in the inning advanced him to third and allowed Brodie Short to score on a wild pitch from Cape Girardeau. The inning eventually ended with the Catfish up by four, 8-4.
While the Doggy Paddlers narrowed the margin between the two teams in the seventh, they were going to need a hot eighth and ninth innings to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Unfortunately, it instead was the end of the road for the local team who exceeded expectations this season and attracted an increased following along the way, as a scoreless eighth inning from both teams took the teams to the top of the ninth.
A Kamryn Link homer to left field narrowed the gap but couldn’t change the final outcome of a game that ran just under three-and-a quarter hours and allowed the home squad to live another day in the League’s postseason. Dean Staudacher took the loss on the mound for the Doggy Paddlers, giving up six hits and seven runs in four innings. Tyler Dance pitched the remaining four innings and allowed two hits and one run.
By The Numbers
As the Doggy Paddlers wrapped up the regular season Saturday evening, here are some stats from the year gone by:
The Doggy Paddlers ranked second in the league in hitting, with 556; fourth atop the Prospect League in base running, with 439; and 16th in attendance (out of 20 teams with 17,370 passing through the gates at QU Stadium since the season began in late May.)
In addition, the team’s collective batting average was .307, which ranked them number two in the League in that statistic; on base percentage, .418 (fifth in League); slugging percentage, .474 (second in League); and of special note, 61 home runs were scored by players in a Doggy Paddlers’ uniform, which was the best in the Prospect League this season.
