EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. – Jackson Cooke is in the record books, but the Thunder Bay Border Cats are no longer tied for first place.
Cooke homered for the ninth time this season on Saturday, tying teammate Cole Ketzner and three others for the single-season best in franchise history, but the Border Cats couldn’t celebrate the accomplishment with a win.
The Eau Claire Express scored four times in the eighth inning in the opening game of their six-game, home-and-home series, and went on to double up Thunder Bay 8-4. The Express (16-12) and Duluth Huskies (16-12) are tied for top spot in the Great Plains East, with the Border Cats (15-13) falling a game behind after the loss.
An error by Cooke, the Thunder Bay backstop, led to a pair of runs coming across in the decisive eighth. George Bilecki followed with an RBI single off reliever Bode Gebbink, ending his night.
The Express added another run when Dylan O’Connell singled to centre against Ryan Vondracek.
The Cats went down quietly in the ninth, dropping their sixth game in their last 10 outings.
Thunder Bay trailed 4-1 in the sixth, when Garrett Sloan singled to open the frame against Eau Claire starter Zach Diver. Cooke followed with his team-record-tying homerun. The next batter, Trey Fikes, singled, then he came into score on a Thomas Cooper double, after Fikes took second on an error.
Mike Maanum led off the seventh with a walk but was stranded at first. Daniel Rosado took over for Eau Claire in the eighth and retired the side in order.
Terrence Moody got the start for Thunder Bay and allowed four runs on four hits and four walks over four innings. Gebbink was tagged for four more runs, just two of them earned, allowing three hits and walking three more.
Diver lasted six innings, responsible for four runs – three of them earned – on seven hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out one. The win went to Rosado, the loss to Gebbink (2-2).
The Border Cats and Express meet again in Eau Claire on Sunday, before switching the series to Port Arthur Stadium on Monday, ending Thunder Bay’s gruelling 13-game road trip.
