With 'full hearts' Thrillbillies upset Catfish for Prairie Land Division title

The Thrillville Thrillbillies, a newly formed Prospect League team out of Marion, Illinois, suffered a tragic loss when catcher Ashton Smith passed away on July 25 unexpectedly of complications from a medical condition.

The Thrillbillies entered the Prospect League playoffs wearing red caps with Smith's uniform number, 24. In his honor, they defeated the Cape Catfish 10-5 in a major upset to win the Prairie Land Division championship on Sunday, August 6, at Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau.

Thrillville designated hitter Charlie Corum hit a 3-run homer to highlight a 7-run third inning that gave the Thrillbillies total control of the game. During his postgame interview, he pointed to the night sky and gave a heartfelt shoutout to his fallen friend.

A Thrillbillies jersey with Ashton Smith's number, who passed away on July 25, hangs on the backstop netting as the fans who made the trip to Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau cheer on the team's 10-5 win over the Cape Catfish in the Prairie Land Division championship game on Sunday, August 6. Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

"Love you, Ash," Corum said, "love that you’re watching over us every day."

Including Sunday's win, the Thrillbillies have won 10 of their last 12 games, since Smith's passing. Corum said the team has been, "playing with our full hearts now" and has someone to play for."

"We got Ashton in our hearts all the time," Corum said. "We were all wearing necklaces for him and his honor and just everybody's uplifted all the time. Nobody's taking bad at-bats, nobody's taking at-bats out on the field now. We're all playing fun baseball, just fun baseball."

The Catfish took the initial lead, scoring 1-run in the 1st inning on a Justin Carinici sacrifice fly that scored Chris Hall. The Catfish mounted a respectable rally in the ninth inning with three runs on a Hall groundball and a Carinici 2-run single, but they were five runs short.

Logan Mueller came in to close the game and got the final two outs on a strikeout and flyout.

"They're a very good team, but our team is just bonded together for the past few weeks," Mueller said. "We got a brotherhood, and I think that's what's been pushing us through here. It's all for Ashton. We're playing for 24 here and it just brought a good bond together for us."

On the night before, the last game of the regular season, the Thrillbillies (34-21) scored 24 runs in a win against the Jackson Rockabillys.

"Scoring 24 runs in his honor last night was incredible," Corum said, "and then coming in and getting a big playoff dub in our first year as a team. It's just memorable. This has been my favorite summer of all time and I want to keep it going as long as I can with my boys."

Josh Griffin was one of a trio of Thrillbillies to hit a home run during that game. To him, there was a special feeling about that game from the first pitch to the last run.

"You can't write a better script," Griffin said. "Scoring 24 runs on the night that we're honoring number 24, our brother, you can't write it up any better. The other team had two runs on four hits. It left us all speechless. Last night was one of the most special things I've ever been a part of.

"I think we've all felt some sort of other power with us that we didn't have all year," Griffin said, holding back emotion. "We were a good team before but after Ash's passing, there's just been this extra light with us. Feels like there's something over our heads every time we go out there and it's no doubt it's him watching."

Thrillbillies pitcher Austin Gast, a Notre Dame alum and Jacksonville State commit, wears the special hat paying tribute to Thrillville catcher Ashton Smith, who passed away on July 25, during a game against the Cape Catfish on Sunday, August 6 at Capaha Field.Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

Smith, a recent graduate of Bellarmine University, was one of the oldest players and leader on the team. His teammates remember him more for the person that he was than for what he did on the diamond.

"My favorite memory was this guy's smile," Corum said. "He always smiles. He always welcomes people with full arms, and he's just our guy. He's my brother. He's my teammate, and he's my best friend."

"He was always down to talk to you about whatever, always had something to joke with you about something," Griffin said. "He had so many inside jokes with everybody, nicknames for everybody. He just brought the light to the room. You couldn’t ask for a better teammate."

"He was always making you smile," Mueller said. "As a pitcher with him catching, after I'd come out, good or bad, he comes to tell me what you did, like trying to help. He's always trying to help. He's a great, great leader."

The Thrillbilles won their first Division Championship in their inaugural season in the Prospect League. They will host the Quincy Gems, the Great River Division Champions, in the Western Conference Championship on Tuesday, August 8. The winner will play in the Prospect League Championship Series on August 10-13.

Should this run continue, it was all part of a grand design.

"Once I met Ash," Corum said, "he came up to me, he's like, 'We're winning this thing. This is my goal to get a ring on the finger.' I wasn't all on board with it at first. I'm gonna play baseball this summer as long as I can. But losing a brother is hard but dammit man, playing for him every single day, he's in all of our hearts and I'm just gonna keep playing for him."

The Catfish offense that led the Prospect League in multiple statistical categories all season went 0 for 10 with 2-outs and stranded 9 runners on base. Jorge Romero entered the game leading the Prospect League in ERA but was chased out after five runs in 2.2 innings on the mound.

A season at Cape that started with a 12-game winning streak and was filled with fun and hope came to an end so suddenly. However, the sorrow from failure was replaced by an air of appreciation for the friendships formed and memories made throughout the summer.