THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Border Cats pre-empted their post-game Canada Day celebration with some fireworks of their own.
The Northwoods League team piled on six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday night, rallying from a 13-7 deficit to down the visiting Rochester Honkers 17-13 in front of 1,823 fans awaiting the annual fireworks show at Port Arthur Stadium.
Catcher Tucker Stockman, who doubled twice in the eighth, plating a pair of insurance runs with his third two-base hit of the night, said it was a wild game from start to finish.
The Cats scored seven in the first to take a 7-2 lead, but gave up six runs in the second and five more in the third, forcing them to dig deep, slowly chip away at the Rochester lead and eventually win it late.
“It was a long game and you’ve just got to fight it out,” said Stockman, who raised his average to .296 on the season after his 4-for-6 performance.
“It’s a team game and we had a couple guys struggle on the mound who hadn’t struggled very much. But Trevor (Baugh) came in and figured it out and shut it down for us. We were able to score some runs and come back.”
Baugh took over in relief to start the fifth inning, the fourth Border Cats pitcher of the night. He didn’t allow a run the rest of the way, giving up just two hits and walking none.
“He’s really good at landing his off-speed pitches and when you do that, it gives you a lot of room to throw your fastball. You can miss down the middle. He was just landing his off-speed with ease.”
The performance bought the Cats the time they needed to get the bats figured out.
It looked like they had things under control in the first, thanks to run-scoring singles by Stockman and Alex Urlaub, and a two-run single off the at of leadoff hitter Lucas Terilli, an inning buoyed by a pair of errors by Honkers second baseman Jared Lewis.
But Rochester got to Border Cats starter Julian Parson in the second. Dean Carpentier, the eighth Rochester batter of the inning, stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and launched a bomb off the left-field scoreboard, the grand slam giving the Honkers an 8-7 lead.
The third was almost as ugly.
Reliever Nick Veselinovic loaded the bases with no outs and when all was said and done, the Honkers led by six.
Cue the comeback.
In the fourth, Rochester reliever Aaron McCurley walked Ty Brooks with the bases juiced and Alex Urlaub singled in another run to cut the lead to 13-9, an inning curtailed by a diving, run-saving stab by Carpentier, the Rochester shortstop.
McCurley allowed an unearned run in the fifth, giving up a two-out RBI single to Trey Fikes, but the inning came to an abrupt end two batters later when Stockman flew out and Honkers right-fielder Reiss Calvin threw a bullet to the plate to nail Ketzner trying to tag up and score from third.
Thunder Bay added one more in the seventh to make it 13-11, then exploded in the eighth. Bryce Liechty loaded the bases with one out and gave way to Drew Peters. Terilli promptly drew a run-scoring walk and then Zane Skansi brought the crowd to its feet, singling to left to plate Urlaub and Kuriger with the go-ahead run.
“I was just looking for a hittable pitch, something up in the zone that I could do a job with. There was one out, with the bases loaded. I just wanted to put something in play and get the run in,” Skansi said.
Baugh retired the side in order in the ninth to shut the Honkers down.
Border Cats manager J.M. Kelly, tossed in the sixth when the officials ruled a Brayden Kuriger singled using an illegal at bat, said his team showed plenty of character.
“It would have been really easy to give up after Kuriger gets called out with the bat. But overall, it was a really good job. I’m proud of these guys,” Kelly said.
The Cats (17-15), winners of four straight, assured they’ll finish at least .500 in the first half. Rochester dropped to 11-23 with the loss. The two teams will meet again on Monday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m.
