Architect of Catfish, SEMO baseball success reels in another honor

At any given Cape Catfish game, you can find the architect of success for the franchise standing atop the hill glancing over a baseball diamond that he has carried in his heart since he was a boy.

“We used to ride our bikes over here,” Catfish General Manager Mark Hogan said of his childhood and his beloved Capaha Field.

Hogan has enjoyed a fantasy-like life of baseball success, and achieving much of it within a long drive into the gap of the home he was raised in, and the achievements just keep on coming.

On Friday, the Ohio Valley Conference named a very select group of athletes and coaches as part of the league’s 75th Anniversary Teams in each sport that the conference offers, and Hogan was among 82 honorees from Southeast Missouri State, six of whom were coaches, that were recognized.

“Most of what I concentrate on,” Hogan said of his reflection on his 18 years of leading Redhawk baseball, “are the different boys, now men, and the guys that I got to be around.”

The baseball programs that Hogan has been a part of as a player at SEMO, and coach at various stops, knew very little aside from success.

Hogan, who played for the Redhawks in the College World Series, is the all-time winningest baseball coach at SEMO and has been inducted into the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame three separate times.

“It’s just amazing,” Hogan said of his career. “I do feel so blessed about it.”

The Redhawk baseball program had 14 players named as the “best of the best” within the OVC. Astonishingly, only four of those 14 student-athletes have been inducted into the University’s Hall of Fame.

Fast-forward to today, Hogan has constructed the most successful franchise in the Prospect League, and he did so from Day One.

“After six years of hanging out in retirement,” Hogan said, “I was approached with an opportunity (to run the baseball end of the Catfish) that has been just beautiful.

“It was straight out of Heaven.”

The Catfish (36-17 overall, 14-11 second half) snapped a brief two-game skid with wins on Saturday (10-3 over Jackson) and a 10-0 blanking of Springfield on Sunday.

The 36 victories are the second-most in the Prospect League this summer, trailing Chillicothe (38 wins) by a couple of victories.

Since Cape was awarded a franchise in 2019, Hogan’s teams have qualified for the postseason three times in four seasons, have played for two championships in three years, and won one of those titles.

“The people that were involved (in the Catfish) were right,” Hogan said, “and I just thought ‘Wow!’”

This season, the Catfish set a Prospect League record for the best start in league history (12 consecutive wins), and Hogan’s club won the Prairie Land Division title for the first half of the season, which gave them their third playoff berth.

“Our bottom line is that this is worth the effort,” Hogan said of the team’s emphasis on success in ALL matters, both on and off the diamond. “That is why we go after it every day.”

The Redhawks were represented by the following athletes and coaches by the OVC.

Men's Basketball

Mike Branson (1998-00)

Antonius Cleveland (2013-17)

Bud Eley (1995-99)

Roderick Johnson (1998-00)

Tyler Stone (2011-14)

Women's Basketball

Sonya Daugherty (2005-09)

Lachelle Lyles (2005-07)

Adrianna Murphy (2015-19)

Tesia Thompson (2017-21)

Football

Eugene Amano (2000-03)

Kelvin "Earthquake" Anderson (1992-94)

Dan Connolly (2001-04)

Drew Forbes (2015-18)

Zach Hall (2016-19)

Henry Harris (2008-10)

Geno Hess (2018-present)

Paul McRoberts (2012-15)

Sean Middleton (2006-10)

Blake Peiffer (2009-12)

Willie Ponder (2001-02)

Angel Rubio (1993-97)

Matt Scheible (2008-11)

David Simonhoff (2003-06)

Marquis Terry (2017-18)

Kristian Wilkerson (2015-19)

Women's Soccer

Beth Guccione (1999, 2001)

Jenny Hamilton (1999-02)

Heather Nelson (Head Coach)

Lindsay Pickering (2005-07)

Volleyball

Emily Coon (2010-13)

Cindy Gannon (Head Coach)

Krista Haukap (1997-00)

Pam Kirsch (1990-93)

Laney Malloy (2018-21)

Tuba Meto (1994-98)

Claire Ochs (2018-21)

Emily Scannell (2000-03)

Women's Tennis

Romana Tarajova (2018-23)

Men's Track and Field

Logan Blomquist (2017-22)

Brandon Colbert (2007-10)

Kevin Farley (2012-16)

Jay Heddell (2001-04)

Randy Johnson (1995-97)

Brandon Karcher (2006-08)

Shelton Scott (2001-03)

Mile Smith (2004-08)

Josh Uchtman (2008-12)

Joey Haines (Head Coach)

Women's Track and Field

Samantha Espiricueta (2009-11)

Heather Jenkins (2002-06)

Heather Keltner (1997-01)

Lutricia Purham (1998-00)

Kaitlyn Shea (2016-21)

Joey Haines (Head Coach)

Softball

Rachel Anderson (2017-21)

Mykaela Arellanes (2017-19)

Jenny Doehring (2000-01)

Lisa Kraxner (1995-96)

Jenny Oermann (1995-98)

Kim Palmer (1995-98)

Sara Reichert (1994-97)

Rachel Rook (2018-22)

Debbie Schmelz (1996-99)

Jodi Smith (1993-96)

Kelsey White (1999-00)

Lana Richmond (Head Coach)

Baseball

Tim Alvarez (2002-03)

Clemente Bonilla (1999-02)

Rex Crosnoe (1993-95)

Tyrell Cummings (2008-09)

Dylan Dodd (2019-21)

Jeremy Johnson (1997-00)

Jim Klocke (2007-10)

Joey Lucchesi (2015-16)

Trenton Moses (2008-12)

Todd Pennington (1999-01)

Kerry Robinson (1993-95)

Ryan Spille (1998-99)

Matt Tellor (2013-14)

Tyler Wilber (2019-22)

Mark Hogan (Head Coach)