Cats hope for a change in fortunes in second half

When they hit, the Thunder Bay Border Cats couldn’t pitch. When they pitched well, the bats fell silent.

Then as the two merged toward an equilibrium that might earn the Northwoods League squad a victory or two to give hope going forward, the bullpen imploded.


But the first half is behind them, said leading hitter Cullen Mahoney, whose club lost 12 of 13 down the stretch, and there’s nowhere to go but up.

It’s finding consistency that will bring them second-half success, said the Phoenix native, who at .311 was the only Cat hitting above .300 as of Tuesday night.


“It’s going to be stringing things together. But the whole team is really optimistic going into the second half. We’ve shown that we can hit and we’ve shown we can pitch with anyone in this league. We get a fresh start, which is nice.”

The Cats, 11-22 before Wednesday’s contest, also have to build on any confidence they gained in the first half. Without it, they could find themselves in a similar situation come August, simply playing out the string.


“It’s a confidence and a swagger that we lacked at times. We didn’t really trust and believe in our pitching staff and thought we’d have to go and put up 10 runs, which is too much for an offence,” Mahoney said.

“And our pitchers thought they had to go out there and be perfect every night. It’s kind of just trusting one another. We’ve seen what both sides can do, so it’s believing in each other and just putting it together.”

There are positives, said reliever and outfielder Casey Selsor, who filled in admirably on Tuesday night when Zak Miller partially deflected a line drive off his face.

And there are more to come, the San Antonio native said.

“We’re coming around. We’re playing good baseball right now. It’s not coming out on the scoreboard and the win column. But we really are starting to play good,” said Selsor, who sports a 2.61 ERA in five appearances and is hitting .220 at the dish.

“We need a little bit more out of the bullpen. We’re swinging the bats well, we’re getting good starts and it’s just a good positive momentum to roll into the second half. The first half’s over with. You’ve got to forget about it. It didn’t go our way and we know that.”

Steed said he’ll be happy if the players take forth the positives, forget the negatives and remember the slate has been wiped clean as of Thursday morning.

“I thought we had some very strong positives,” said Steed, who has watched his club’s batting average climb from a season low .204 to .225 – not great, but getting better.

“In the middle of the season our bats came alive and we’ve swung it. We know we can do that, matching up against any pitcher. I think our starting pitching’s been strong … I think our bullpen guys will be the focus point of the second half, moving forward.”