THUNDER BAY – All the Thunder Bay Border Cats needed to get back to their winning ways was a heavy dose of Billy Humphrey.
The Cats right-hander was outstanding on Wednesday night, battling the elements to put forth a masterpiece.
Humphrey allowed just one run on one hit over seven innings as Thunder Bay downed the visiting Minnesota Mud Puppies 8-2 and improved to 4-12 in second-half play in the Northwoods League. Humphrey faced the minimum number of batters through four innings, and didn’t allow a hit until Nick Ibrahim singled with two outs in the fifth.
By then, the Border Cats bats came had come to life.
After enduring a brief rain delay that pushed the start time back more than half an hour, the team gave Minnesota starter Caden Carsen fits in the second inning, erupting for four runs, and never looked back. Thunder Bay batter around, their first run coming on a Carter Allen RBI single that brought Ryder Hernandez in from third.
The Border Cats first five batters reached safely.
Karson Krowka added a second run, drawing a bases-loaded walk. Two batters later Travis Chestnut, who stole two bases to set the Border Cats single season record with 34, eclipsing the 33 put up by Quinn Ciccarelli in the team’s maiden 2003 campaign, also walked with the bases full, upping the Thunder Bay lead to 3-0.
Patrick Engskov capped off the scoring in the second with a sacrifice fly that plated Krowka.
Carsen gave way to reliever Austin Shingledecker to start the third, and ultimately he fared no better over 3.2 innings of work, staying out on the mound an inning too long after shutting the Cats out over his first three frames of work.
A one-out Brayden Kuriger double quickly converted into a run when Krowka drilled a two-strike single to left.
Jonah Sutton kept the inning alive with a two-out walk, Chestnut following suit to first after being hit by a pitch.
Engskov doubled in Krowka and newcomer Blake Warner singled to right, adding two more runs to the mix, Thunder Bay jumping in front 8-1.
The Mud Puppies, a travelling team created to fill a gap in the schedule left by having an odd number of teams, got their only run in the top of the sixth.
Tanner Recchio walked with two outs, stole two bases and scored on an error by catcher Sutton. They’d add one more in the eighth against Border Cats reliever Will Droll, a Thunder Bay native who came on to finish things up, allowing a run on two hits over the final two innings.
Thunder Bay remains nine games out of first place in the Great Plains East Division, but did gain ground on Duluth, Rochester and Eau Claire on Wednesday night.
Thunder Bay heads to Rochester for the first of two against the Honkers on Thursday night. They’ll head to Willmar for a pair against the Stingers and return to Port Arthur Stadium on Monday when La Crosse, who lead the Great Plains East at 12-2, arrive in town.
