THUNDER BAY – If the Thunder Bay Border Cats were going to make a second-half charge, the Minnesota Mud Puppies had to be their jumping-off point.
A travelling team without a home stadium, that only exists because the Northwoods League has an odd number of teams and needed a squad to hit the road and fill in the schedule’s gap, the Mud Puppies aren’t supposed to win a lot of ballgames.
And coming into Tuesday night’s series opener at Port Arthur Stadium, they hadn’t, wining just once in eight second-half games.
The Border Cats, mired at 3-11 and buried in last place in the Great Plains East Division, were already in must-win territory, nine games out of top spot and just three weeks left to claw their way back into contention.
It was a bad time for the pitching staff to have an off night.
The Mud Puppies jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, newcomer Riely Hunsaker showing some nerves in his NWL debut, needing 33 pitches, two under the league maximum, to get out of the frame.
The Border Cats didn’t flinch, erupting for five of their own in the bottom of the first, a two-run Carter Allen single chasing starter Will Fazio after recording just two outs.
The Cats sent 11 men to the plate in the inning and things were looking up, especially after they added four more in the second to go up 9-5, a Tyler Kehoe two-run double the key hit that chased Minnesota reliever Jack Nicklaus, who might have fared better at this week’s Open Championship than he did on the mound.
The Mud Puppies (2-7), with nothing to lose, brought Josh Kirchoff (W, 1-0) into pitch and it was the best decision of the night. The Iowa Central Community College right-hander proceeded to shut down the Border Cats for 5.1 innings.
After giving up hits to the first two batters he faced, and one to Patrick Engskov to open the fourth, Kirchoff and the Minnesota bullpen locked down, not allowing a hit the rest of the way, allowing the Mud Puppies bats to reawaken.
And reawaken they did in the sixth.
Griffin Catto lost control of the strike zone, walking three of the first four batters he faced and he gave way to Canadian Jacob Gagic (L, 0-2), who found problems of his own. Chayton Fischer doubled on the third pitch he saw from the Hamilton native, scoring two and then, after striking out Nick Ibrahim and Adam Berghult, Kyle Law singled to right to score two more, giving the Mud Puppies a 10-9 lead they’d never relinquish, going on to down Thunder Bay 13-9, to the disappointment of the 915 fans on hand.
“We know our bats are always good enough to win any game,” said Law, who was 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and drove in five.
“We just told our pitchers, go out there and throw strikes for us and we’re going to come in, pick you up and get us back in the game.”
Nolan Atkins, filling in for Border Cats manager J.M. Kelly, still on an excused absence from the team, said it was a disappointing result.
“We were ahead early. We need to make better pitches. We need to have better approaches later, and that’s on us,” Atkins said.
“It’s obviously disappointing. We just need to do a better job and we need to make some adjustments. What we’re doing isn’t working, so we’ve got to get back on the table and figure out what’s going to work for us.”
The Cats and Mud Puppies complete their two-game set on Wednesday. Game time is 6:35 p.m.
