THUNDER BAY – Patience paid off for the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
Rochester starter Dylan Tostrup was all but unhittable through four innings, allowing just a single baserunner, a fourth-inning, two-out walk to Cole Ketzner.
It was a matter of biding their time.
That time came with two outs in the fifth, when catcher Trey Fikes strode to the plate, with one pitch on his mind.
He got it and launched a shot over the wall in left-centre, evening the score at 1-1. Two innings later Ketzner, full versed on what Tostrup had to offer, drove one to the opposite field, the ball having enough carry to soar over Port Arthur Stadium’s right-field fence.
At the time, Tostrup had given up just three hits.
“We kind of leaned on the home run (tonight), but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Fikes said. “That just helped us get over the top and get the win.”
The Three Rivers College backstop, hitting .337 as a rookie in the Northwoods League, said he wasn’t necessarily looking to hit a homerun, but when he got the pitch he was looking for, he swung for the fences.
“Honestly, I wasn’t seeing it well all day. I got up there and I was just looking for the fastball and if I saw it, I was swinging,” Fikes said.
Fikes also helped his team defensively, throwing out a pair of would-be base stealers to help his pitchers out of early-game jams.
Ketzner said the lefty Tostrup was a tough foe on the mound for the Honkers, but added it only takes a mistake or two to turn a game around.
“That dude threw awesome tonight. He was a good arm, three or four pitches, whenever he wanted to, to both sides of the plate. We knew after the first couple of innings we were going to have a good game on our hands. Our pitchers really shut the door on them, did a great job and we knew we just had to grind it out and Fikes got us going with the solo shot to tie it up,” Ketzner said.
Zane Skansi doubled in two more in the bottom of the eighth to give the Border Cats a three-run cushion and Troy McLeese finished off a four-inning, one-hit, shutout performance by retiring the Honkers in order in the ninth to earn the save.
Opener Parker Burgess got the start for Thunder Bay. Terrence Moody took over in the second and allowed one run, on three hits.
The run itself was a bit unfortunate.
Rochester’s Reiss Calvin, standing on second, broke for third, forcing Thunder Bay third baseman Thomas Cooper to retreat to the bag. The batter, Grant MacArthur, hit the ball where Cooper had been standing, allowing Clavin to scamper home, as the Honkers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth.
The win gives the Border Cats sole possession of first place in the Great Plains East Division with an 11-5 record, a game better than Rochester’s 9-5 mark.
It was a big win, but they’re all important at this point of the season, the teams nearing the midway point of the 34-game second half, Kelly said.
“You want to win ever time you roll out there. But I’m really proud of our guys the way they competed. They stayed in the fight the entire way. They didn’t get let down when they scored that run. They came right back and responded,” Kellys aid.
“It was really good to see that and the pitching staff executed everything they needed to do on all their pitches.”
It was the third straight win for Thunder Bay, the second loss in a row for Rochester.
The Cats take to the road for 14 straight, starting on Thursday night in Willmar. The extended road trip was necessitated due to the World Women’s Baseball Championship, which gets under way on July 28 at Port Arthur Stadium.
Cat tracks: Attendance was 1,112.
