ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Border Cats were forced to play catch-up most of the night, but in the end fell two runs short.
The Cats spotted the host Rochester Honkers a 6-0 lead on Sunday through four innings, battled back to even the score with a five-run sixth, but couldn’t hang on and were out-slugged 13-11 by their opponent to wrap up the pre-all-star game portion of their monstrous 14-game road trip at 1-3.
Despite the loss, Thunder Bay still clings to a half-game lead in the Northwoods League’s Great Plains East Division with a 12-8 record and 14 games to go.
The Border Cats did themselves no favours, committing five errors at Mayo Field behind starter Colin Slivka, who gave up six runs on nine hits, but only three of them were earned. Only seven Honkers runs in the game were earned.
Paul Schoenfeld homered with two aboard and two outs in the fourth, the big blast in a four-run inning that pushed the Honkers out in front by six.
The Cats brought out the big bats in the sixth as they fought back to even things up. Cole Ketzner hit his team-leading seventh homer to get Thunder Bay on the board and then, with two down and two on, Brayden Kuriger hit a blast over the left-field fence.
Unfortunately for Thunder Bay, the Honkers got the offence rolling again in the bottom of the sixth. Petey Craska hit a one-out bomb to restore a one-run lead for Rochester and Augusto Mungarrieta made it 8-6, scoring on a wild pitch by Border Cats reliever Troy McLeese.
Ketzner and Sam Stem hit back-to-back solo shots with two outs in the seventh, once again drawing Thunder Bay back to even ground.
Ketzner now has a team-leading eight home runs on the season, one shy of the Border Cats record of nine, held jointly by Tyler Duplantis, Rob Paller and Anthony Brocato, who did it most recently, in 2016.
However, McLeese gave up a two-out, bases empty home run to Andrew Cain in the bottom of the seventh and the Honkers jumped out in front again, leading 9-8.
Thunder Bay tied things up in the eighth when Tucker Stockman doubled off Rochester reliever Joe Gizzi, scoring Ty Brooks from first.
Rochester all but put it away in the bottom of the inning.
The Honkers loaded the bases against Tyler Jordan, who then hit Grant MacArthur to plate one run. Calvin Reiss brought in another run a fielder’s choice and also allowed Blaine French to score on an error. With Max Ramirez IV on the mound, a Kuriger error cost the Cats another run, the Honkers taking a 13-9 lead.
Keegan Garis homered with one out in the ninth and the Cats appeared to have something going after Thomas Cooper and Riley Iffrig reached. Cooper would eventually come home on a wild pitch, but Kuriger and Trey Fikes each grounded out to end the threat.
Cade Cushing went six innings for Rochester, allowing six runs on eight hits and striking out a pair. Gizzi got the win, improving to 1-2. Jordan took the loss, falling to 0-1.
Thunder Bay (12-8) holds a half-game lead over Duluth (11-8) and is one up on Rochester (10-8), who snapped a five-game losing streak with Sunday’s win. Waterloo (9-10) and Eau Claire (8-10) are also still in contention.
The Cats will take on Eau Claire on Thursday.
