THUNDER BAY – A late rally by the Eau Claire Express has put the Thunder Bay Border Cats playoff hopes on ice.
The Express (19-12) scored three in the seventh inning on Tuesday night to break open a 5-5 contest, then added four more insurance runs in the ninth to walk away with a 12-5 victory.
The loss eliminated the Border Cats (15-16) from contention in the Northwoods League’s Great Plains Division’s second-half pennant race, leaving them four behind the first-place Express with just four games to play.
Thunder Bay, if they won out and Eau Claire lost out, would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Express, losing eight of 10 meetings between the two teams. They’d also lose a head-to-head-to-head tiebreak if the Border Cats, Duluth Huskies (18-13) and Express finish tied when the 2024 season comes to a close on Saturday.
They could win a four-way tiebreaker with Rochester in the picture, but the Honkers (15-15) will only play 34 games in the second half, one fewer than the Border Cats, Express and Huskies, so the scenario isn’t a possibility.
It’s disappointing, said Thunder Bay leftf-ielder, who missed hitting a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning by about a foot, settling instead for long RBI single.
“That’s always a bummer,” Stem said. “I was really looking forward to playing here for the playoffs. But we’ll still give it our all for the last couple of games.”
Stem, who has four home runs in 30 games since joining the Border Cats for the second half, said he hit the ball hard, but just not quite hard enough.
“Yeah, it would have been nice if it had gone over, but it’s all right. Everything happens for a reason,” Stem said.
Acting manager Bobby Denucci said given the number of departures the team has been dealing with over the past week or more, it’s not surprising.
“We lost most of our guys that were playing regularly. This last week, we’ve kind of known the writing is kind of on the wall.”
The Express, who won the first three games of their six-game home-and-home series, scratched out single runs in the first and second innings against Thunder Bay starter Adam Metivier. Then, with one out in the fourth, Dylan O’Connell stepped up to the dish and blasted the ball over the fence in left at Port Arthur Stadium, doubling the Eau Claire lead to 4-0.
Evan Gustafson scored on a Brady Blake sacrifice fly in the sixth, but the five-run lead was not enough to keep the Border Cats down.
An error, a walk and a single loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, ending Eau Claire starter Isaiah Kratz’s night.
Brian Wrenn came in and was promptly charged with a balk. Thomas Cooper followed with a sacrifice fly to cut the Express lead to 5-2. Thunder Bay tied things up in the seventh, after Koshiro Ohno retired Eau Claire in order in the top half of the inning.
Tripp Johns led off with a single against Easton Pratt, and with one out, Peter Fusek reached on an error. Trey Fikes walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Stem. Riley Ifrig followed with another RBI single and Garrett Sloan then tied the game 5-5 with an RBI groundout.
That’s when the good news ended for Thunder Bay.
Ohno unleased a wild pitch with a runner on third and Brady Blake and Brigs Richartz plated runs, giving the Express an 8-5 lead. Blake had a two-run double in the ninth as Eau Claire added four more to put the game away.
Eau Claire leads the division by a game over Duluth and 3.5 games over Rochester.
The two teams will meet again on Wednesday night.
Attendance was 1,085.
