Losing continues

The Mankato Moondogs didn’t play nice with their north-of the-border hosts on Canada Day.

For a second straight day the Thunder Bay Border Cats, this time dressed in red Canada jerseys, fell behind early, rallied their way back into the contest, only to lose in lopsided fashion.

Matt Reida delivered the killer blow on Friday afternoon, launching a three-run, eighth inning triple off Cats reliever Casey Selsor, part of a six-run rally that broke open a 6-6 tie and led to a 12-6 Mankato win.

It was the Cats ninth loss in 10 games and dropped them 9.5 games back of the top-ranked Moondogs (19-9), in a heated firs t-half playoff race with the Duluth Huskies, the team the Cats will face for a pair starting on Saturday at Port Arthur Stadium.  

Mankato DH James McDonald homered, drove in a pair of runs, was 4-for-6 on the afternoon and was happy to leave the Lakehead with mini sweep.

“It’s good, it’s what we planned on doing, coming up here and getting the two wins. And we accomplished it,” said McDonald, whose team captured its third straight victory.
“Our mindset is we’ve got to go out there and get it.”

McDonald, who singled home the first run of the eighth, was standing on first base when Reida hit the batter’s box, and said he had every intention of crossing the plate when the ball began its long trek into right-centrefield.

“That was a big hit. That was our game. Right when he hit it I was thinking score. That was my mindset,” McDonald said.

It was more frustration for Cats manager Mike Steed, who sent Oakville, Ont. native Taylor Bratton to the mound, an experiment that lasted two innings and two batters.

Bratton, who loaded the bases in the first inning but escaped unscathed, couldn’t repeat his luck in the second.

Brennan Moore doubled to drive home Nate Johnson, and though Cullen Mahoney took the relay throw and nailed McDonald at the plate, Bratton couldn’t get the job done. A walk to Nick Judkins paved the way for a two-run double to the wall in left by Shaun Cooper, who later came home on a Sam Lind single.

Bratton gave up a single and a walk to start the second, and Steed had had enough, forced to go to his bullpen early for a second straight game.

“With our bullpen, for us to be successful, we need to keep it to 12 outs in our bullpen,” Steed said. “And the last two nights, we’ve had to run a lot arms out there. And tonight we didn’t have (Brad) Delatte available, we didn’t have (Donnie) White available. (Reid) Rooney did three innings last night and the pitch count was up.

“We had to use guys in back-to-back situations and the 12 walks tonight didn’t help us at all as far as keeping our pitch count down.”

The bright spot is the offense seems to be coming around, said Steed, whose team was straddling the Mendoza line for much of June, but in recent says has seen its average as a whole jump to .227.

The Cats took an early lead in the first on a Ty Wosleger double, but a coaching gaffe at third saw Brett Kay thrown out rounding for home and they had to settle for a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 6-3 in the sixth, however, Thunder Bay’s hitters showed what they’re capable of, with Mahoney cutting the led to two with an RBI single and Kay ripping a line-drive to second that Lind couldn’t handle, scoring Ino Patron and Matt Stevens.

A walk to Stevens ended the day for Mankato starter Tyler Niederklein, who gave up eight hits and five runs in five innings of work.

Patrick Goelz, who pitched two innings of no-hit ball coming on in the seventh, earned the win for the Moondogs.

Cat tracks: Cats owner Brad Jorgenson confirmed the team inquired about the availability of Wayne Gretzky’s son Trevor, a seventh round pick of the Chicago Cubs last month. The Great One’s offspring plays high school ball in California … Northwoods League president Dick Radatz was at the game on Friday and plans to stick around for Saturday’s opener with the Huskies … Attendance was 815 on a cool Canada Day afternoon … Sunday’s matinee affair features free admission.