THUNDER BAY – It’s not always how you start the game, it’s how you finish.
Thanks to timely run-scoring fifth-inning hits by Jackson Cooke and Ty Brooks, and 3.2 innings of shutout relief from Tanner Vaughn, the Thunder Bay Border Cats pulled out an improbable 7-6 win over the visiting Rochester Honkers, after spotting their opponent a 6-1 lead.
Cooke singled, scoring Keegan Garis and Thomas Cooper to tie the game 6-6, and Brooks capped off a six-run sixth with a triple that allowed Cooke to race home with what proved to be the game-winning run, the hit ending Gauge Lockhart’s night.
Garis also had a two-run single in the inning for the Cats, a team that was chased for most of the first half of the season, but has been chasing the Honkers for most of the second half.
On Tuesday night, they caught them.
“It was huge. It put us in first place,” Cooke said.
“The offence really contributed when we needed them and Vaughn obviously went up there and nutted up for us. That was really cool to see.”
The fifth was clearly the turning point in the contest, and Cooke said the momentum was clearly leaning the Border Cats way after Lockhart hit Zane Skansi and Cole Ketzner, sandwiched around a walk to Riley Iffrig, all with one out.
“The confidence is up, especially when everyone is hitting. We’re just trying to get on base and pass the baton to the next guy and score more runs.”
Vaughn said he welcomed the challenge of trying to shut down a Rochester team that’s hit 23 home runs in its last 10 games, scoring a remarkable 92 runs over that span.
“It’s a great feeling, all around, just being able to do something that I haven’t really done all summer and be there for my teammates, especially in a situation where we’re down so big and then we come back, it makes it even better,” said Vaughn, who lowered his ERA to 7.23.
The Honkers home run brigade did continue in the first, Andrew Cain sending a shot over the right-field wall with two aboard to give Rochester an early 3-0 lead.
The Cats got one back in the second. Cooke drew a one-out walk, took second on a groundout and scored on back-to-back wild pitches.
The fourth proved to be the beginning of the end for Thunder Bay starter Tyler Jordan, though it wasn’t entirely his fault.
Three of the first four Rochester hitters reached on singles and an error by left-fielder Sam Stem allowed Mattie Thomas to score the first of three Rochester runs in the inning. Dom Rodriguez, the first to face Border Cats reliever Nick Veselinovic, followed with a bases-loaded walk. Luca DiPaolo also scored for Rochester.
The Honkers had plenty of chances to get back in the contest, played in front of 810 fans at Port Arthur Stadium, but couldn’t buy a clutch hit when they needed it most. Vaughn struck out Reiss Calvin and got Cain to pop up to short to end a bases-loaded threat in the sixth. With two on in the seventh, DiPaolo flew out to centre. Vaughn settled down in the eighth, allowing a leadoff single and no more, closed it out in the ninth, a Blaine French single the lone blemish on his card.
It's a confidence builder, said Border Cats manager J.M. Kelly.
“Every one of these counts,” he said. “You’re getting down to the end of this thing. There are 21 games, I think, left. Once the all-star break hits, everybody’s going to go down (players). Rochester probably has the best shot to keep all of their guys, more than anybody else. So we’ve got to create a little bit of distance between ourselves and them while we can,” Kelly said.
The Cats (10-5) and Honkers (9-4) are tied for first place, though the Honkers are ranked ahead of Thunder Bay by 0.025 percentage points.
The two teams wrap up their two-game set on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m.
Cat tracks: Border Cats reliever Sean Heppner was drafted in the 12th round, 355th overall, by the Cleveland Guardians. Heppner, a UBC product, will head to Arizona in a couple of days to being his pro career.
