THUNDER BAY – Sometimes good things do come in little packages.
A 5-foot-7 junior at Texas A&M, Travis Chestnut isn’t the biggest guy on the field, but he’s certainly starting to do big things for the Thunder Bay Border Cats, arriving earlier this week, immediately taking over the lead-off spot in the lineup and showing a crafty blend of baseball instincts that’s helped the team run off a season-high six-game winning streak.
On Wednesday night, he even showed a little power, blasting a 1-2 Korey Bunselmeyer offering over the TBNewsatch sign in left, the two-run homerun proving to be the difference in Thunder Bay’s 5-4 win over the Waterloo Bucks, played in front of 776 fans at Port Arthur Stadium.
“It felt really good,” said Chestnut, who hails from Pflugerville, Texas, a suburb of the state capital, Austin, home of Cincinnati Bengals running back Samaje Perine.
“My past two at bats he’d thrown me inside and I knew in my third at bat he was going to come inside at some point. I scooted off the plate a little bit, waited for a fastball in … and I was able to get the barrel on it and jar it out.”
Once again, the Border Cats found themselves battling from behind, the sixth straight game they’ve done so and won.
In fact, in 20 games played in 2023, Thunder Bay has trailed in 16 of them at some point, making it all that more remarkable that they’ve run up a 12-8 record and taken over top spot in the Northwoods League’s Great Plains East Division, ahead of Duluth and Rochester by mere percentage points, but still listed in first.
“Our guys are doing a really good job of playing as a team. They don’t ever get out of a fight. They continue to punch back when we get down. Sometimes we’re in the corner, and we’re as close to getting knocked out as you can get and our guys continue to get back in the ballgame,” said manager J.M. Kelly.
“The good thing to me is we don’t try to do it all in one inning. Our guys punch and punch and punch. I’m still waiting for us to lay the knockout blow. We can’t seem to do that yet, but we’ve got to continue fighting.”
Jack Pineau, the Thunder Bay righthander, got the start, and didn’t have his best stuff, though several of the eight hits he allowed followed Yogi Berra’s mantra – hit ‘em where they ain’t.
Pineau was roughed up for a couple in the first, Greg Nichols singling home a pair on a single to left.
The Cats got one back in the second, Trey Lewis doubling in Bayden Kuriger from first, and took a 3-2 lead in the third, tying it on Tyler Kehoe’s RBI single and jumping in front when Trey Lewis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Pineau found more trouble in the fourth, retiring two of the first three batters, but then gave up back-to-back singles, Drake Westcott ending his night, plating two runs with the third hit.
Griffin Catto (W, 2-0) took over in relief and finished the inning, taking the Cats through the seventh with another three innings of three-hit, shutout ball.
Kannon Carr spelled Catto to open the eighth, and despite putting a runner in scoring position in the ninth, got Christian Smith to go down swinging to earn the save, his third.
The Border Cats hit the road on Thursday for the start of a six-game road trip and the first of four against LaCrosse. Their next home game is June 28 against Eau Claire.
