THUNDER BAY – Border Cats manager J.M. Kelly isn’t pulling any punches about his team’s chances down the stretch.
Left with a cast of characters trying to cram a summer’s worth of baseball learning into a handful of opportunities as the 2023 Northwoods League season winds down, on occasion, like Saturday’s 7-6 over the playoff hungry Waterloo Bucks, good things happen.
Then there was Sunday’s rematch.
Almost nothing went right for the Border Cats, who were trounced 19-5, narrowly missing out on surrendering 20 runs in a game for the second time this season.
It is what it is, Kelly said.
“These guys are getting an experience that they never would have gotten before in their life. Obviously you want to win games, and everybody in Thunder Bay wants to win ballgames, but at this point, we’ve just got to try our best in every single game,” Kelly said.
“I think these guys are doing that. I think we’re lying to ourselves if we say we should be in these games. We shouldn’t. You look at our guys and you look at their guys and you look at the names of the programs some of these guys are coming from … and that’s no knock on these programs.”
The mass departure after the all-star break has taken its toll, but the team is still blessed with a never-day-die attitude, said Thunder Bay starter Karson Shepherd, who had to be pulled after three innings, exceeding the 35-pitch league limit in a four-run third.
“That’s probably the best thing so far about this team. No matter the score, or how bad we’re getting beat, they still go out there and try their best,” Shepherd said.
Designated hitter Brandon Fish was the first to get to the Thunder Bay right-hander, belting the ball over the wall in left to open the second.
The runs just kept coming. They’d score four in the third, six in the fifth and eight in the seventh, up 19-1 after the final outburst.
Fish, whose team dropped three games back after Saturday’s loss, said they wanted to send a message loud and clear they they’re still in the hunt for a second-half crown in the Great Plains East Division.
“Absolutely,” said Fish, whose 48 RBIs are the seventh most in the NWL this season.
“We came up here to win and make the playoffs. That’s our goal and we showed up today, we put up 19 runs. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
The Cats pitching staff didn’t help its own cause, walking eight and hitting three more, and the fielding behind them also wasn’t up to par, two errors leading to five unearned runs.
Newfoundland’s Zack Reid, who finished things off in the ninth, was the lone Thunder Bay pitcher who didn’t give up a hit or a run, Shepherd, Ryan Garvey and Jack Carlson all hit hard for five or more runs in the matinee affair that wrapped up the Border Cats penultimate home series of the season.
Outfielder Christian Smith and shortstop Elliot Good each drove in three runs for the Bucks (20-9), who temporarily moved to within 2.5 games of division-leading La Crosse.
Evan Morrison was solid through five innings, giving up singles to Chad Herrera in the second and Blake Warner in the sixth before giving way to reliever Jack Nathan, whose wild pitch allowed Karson Krowka to cross the plate, the 648 on hand loudly cheering the Cats first run of the afternoon, the team trailing 11-1 at the time.
Ben Keske and Ariel Gonzalez drew bases-loaded walks in the eighth to account for two of the three runs the Border Cats put up in the inning, the third coming on a Colton Allen RBI single.
The Cats welcome La Crosse to Port Arthur Stadium on Monday and Tuesday night before finishing up the regular season on the road.
