(Anita) Former CAM baseball standout Marcus Daugherty was instrumental in the Cougar’s state tournament qualification in 2017. He joins us today to preview this Friday’s replay of CAM’s substate final win over St. Albert. The game will be rebroadcast on KSOM at 6:00 p.m.
Getting to play for your dad, as Marcus Daugherty did at CAM, has its pros and cons. Put qualifying for state together on the pros list. “I remember hugging my dad. That was a special moment. A lot of tears of joy.” Daugherty says, “The moment with my dad stands out the most. Very special moment.”
Daugherty remembers the team being very confident which was important especially against a team like St. Albert from the Hawkeye Ten Conference. It didn’t hurt that they had a starter with 78 strikeouts and a 1.37 ERA on the hill. “We had Thomas Hensley pitching and when he is on the mound everyone else feeds off of him. He has so much energy. We didn’t strike out very much. Everyone put the ball in play and they made some errors we capitalized on. We didn’t make very many mistakes, we played our best baseball that day.”
While Hensley put them in position to win, it was Daugherty who locked down the save. Much as they did the round before, CAM’s defense help them preserve a tight game. “I believed I would do it, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was the most nervous I’ve ever been playing a baseball game.”
Daugherty remembers the one run district final win over Lenox as being just as emotional. Lenox had the go ahead run at 2nd base, but CAM threw a runner out at the plate from centerfield to win the game.
Daugherty spent some time playing baseball at SWCC, but says “I think the high school memories were so special and they were really hard to beat. I’m always thankful for those memories and the times we spent on the baseball field.”
