EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. — Hand grenades and horseshoes? Close counts. Baseball, not so much, or so the Thunder Bay Border Cats have learned over their past three outings.
The Cats dropped two straight 10-inning, 3-2 decisions to Willmar to close out the first half, then opened the second half in similar fashion, edged 1-0 on Tuesday night by the Eau Claire Express, the team that rallied from a game down in the final week of the first half to claim the Great Lakes East Crown by two games over Thunder Bay.
In a game that only took 126 minutes to complete, the Express got the lone run they’d need in the second, a Camden Ross solo shot off Thunder Bay starter Karson Shepherd, who allowed one run on two hits over four innings, but had to settle for a loss in his Border Cats debut.
Relievers Will Droll, of Thunder Bay, and Michael Pirrello shut the Express down the rest of the way, but the Border Cats bats struggled to string any offence together off a quartet of Eau Claire pitchers, including starter Cory Ronan and his four-hit, six-inning shutout performance.
Trey Felker, Nicke Fitzanko and Matt Helwig tossed three innings of no-hit relief to slam the door shut on Thunder Bay’s hitters.
Carter Allen, the Border Cats shortstop, had two hits in three trips to the plate, but no Thunder Bay runner advanced past second on the night.
Tanner Carter is expected to get the call for Thunder Bay for Wednesday’s rematch, with Issaiah Katz scheduled to start for Eau Claire.
The Border Cats return home on Thursday night to open a four-game homestand against the Rochester Honkers.
