By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports

DEXTER, Mo. - Daniel Fitts had one heck of a birthday. The Bearcat left-fielder hit a deep three-run home run in the bottom of the second inning and made an outstanding throw from deep in left field to pick off a Scott City runner at home for the third out of the sixth inning. Fitts’ effort helped push the Bearcats to a much-needed 3-1 victory over Scott City.

“Today’s Daniel Fitts’ birthday, and I don’t know who’s happier, him or me,” head coach Brian Becker said after the game. “He hit that three-run blast for all our runs, and made that huge throw to the plate. DJ Dowdy made a heck of a play there during his first game behind the plate on the varsity level, and it got us out of the inning, which we’ve struggled with lately. Hopefully this win today will lead to bigger and better things in the future.”


Sophomore Brad Potts made the start for the ‘Cats today, picking up his second win of the season. Despite limited run support, the youngster had a great outing, striking out three batters, forcing three groundouts, and picking off a runner at first base. Potts struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning, walking three batters, but was able to get out of the jam without giving up a run.

“Pitching and defense, we had both today. We haven’t had that a lot this spring, but when you have those two things you can win ballgames. [Potts] had a three walks in the first inning, and getting out of that inning was huge without letting them score a run; it picked our ball club up and gave us some momentum,” Becker said. “We played solid defense with the exception of two errors. Today was [Jordan Miller’s] first game not behind the plate, but with Josh Overall out, we had to shift some people around, and Jordan made some good plays on defense. I brought Miller in during the seventh (Potts’ pitch count was just over 100 pitches) and he did a good job.”



Josh Overall had surgery on Thursday (April 7) to correct a broken collarbone, and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

The ‘Cats only had three hits in the contest, and Becker credited Scott City’s pitching staff.

“[Scott City’s] pitcher had a nasty little slider and had pretty decent pop on the ball,” Becker added. “He did a good job of shutting our offense down, but he made a mistake on that pitch to Fitts, and Daniel made him pay for it.”


The Bearcats move to 4-3 on the season, and will face the Sikeston Bulldogs on Monday (April 11) afternoon at Sikeston.


“We’ve got Sikeston on Monday(April 11),” Becker said, “and they have a good ball club. We’ll have to come out Monday and play similar to how we played today to get the win."

The 'Cats have yet to name an official starter for Monday's contest. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m.

Photos above Top Photo: Daniel Fitts threw a rocket from left field straight into the glove of catcher DJ Dowdy to save a run and get the third out of the sixth inning in Thursday’s 3-1 win against Scott City.
Bottom photo: Brad Potts picked up his second win of the season against Scott City.