THUNDER BAY — The bats were working just fine. The pitching was OK. But the gloves? Oh boy, they were made of iron.
The Thunder Bay Border Cats took a 10-5 lead into the eighth inning on Tuesday afternoon, but made five errors over the course of their next two times in the field, leading to seven runs and ultimately to a 12-10 loss to the visiting St. Cloud Rox in front of 2,105 mostly school-age fans at Port Arthur Stadium.
It was an ugly finish, to say the least.
Border Cats manager J.M. Kelly stuck up for his infielders, not laying the blame for the team’s second straight home-field loss squarely on their shoulders.
“It’s not the errors. It’s the combination of errors and walks and not putting yourself in a position to be successful,” Kelly said.
It certainly wasn’t one single player making the mistakes with the leather, the six miscues were made by six different players, one at all four infield positions and two by pitchers.
“Like I just told these guys, summer ball is weird. I’m trying to win games. I get paid to win games. But these guys are here to get better. These guys are here to get better individually while we still win games,” Kelly said.
“So, it’s me and I’ve got to be able to mesh those together. And I’ve got to look at myself the next three days and figure out how can I get us back on track to be successful? We’ve got way too much going on right now as far as guys getting down on themselves.”
Outfielder Logan Johnstone said the team needs to focus more on the field, knowing it’s just as important as the hitting and pitching in the formula for winning ballgames.
“We’ve got to play a little better defence because the errors are catching up to us right now. I think we’ve got to play the full nine innings. I think we’ve had, the past few games, had one or two really bad innings, where we’re not focused on defence or maybe pitching. It’s causing us to lose games here,” said Johnstone, who was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in the game.
The Cats (6-8) dug an early hole, as the Rox jumped all over starter Jack Pineau in the first, John Nett greeting him with a double and eventually coming in to score on a Ben Vujovic single, having moved to third on a passed ball.
St. Cloud added three more in the third, ending Pineau’s day, but like they’ve done all season long, the Border Cats offence picked up the slack, cutting the Rox lead to 4-3 in their half of the third, a Johnstone single plating Easton Culp and a Tyler Kehoe sacrifice fly letting Trey Lewis cross the plate.
The home side took their first lead of the day in the fourth, adding two more, Culp doubling to score one and coming home on a Lewis single.
Up 6-5 in the seventh, the Border Cats pounced on St. Cloud relievers Garrett McLaugling and Evan Esch, torching them for four runs, the key blow a Brayden Kuriger two-run double to left. Thunder Bay scored four in total and led 10-5.
Then along came the eighth.
Caden Fiveash walked Kyle Jackson to open the inning, then made an error that brought him home. Another walk ended his day, as he gave way to Ryan Beaird, the first non-starter called in from the pen.
With the bases loaded, Beaird induced a pair of comebackers to the mound, but Jackson Hauge singled home two more and an error by shortstop Patrick Engskov delivered the tying run, and the game was knotted 10-10.
Bearid (0-2) remained in the game to start the ninth and left with one out and runners on second and third. Jacob Gajic retired the first batter he face and got Nett to ground to third, but the ball was booted by Lewis and two runs came into score, giving the Rox a 12-10 lead.
The Cats went down in order in their half of the ninth.
Thunder Bay has the next three days off and will host Eau Claire on Saturday and Sunday.
