For three guys on temporary contracts with the Thunder Bay Border Cats, Grant McKown, Mike Eagan and Yuji Suzuki sure looked like they belonged on Tuesday night.
Eagan and McKown combined for a five-hit opening night shutout while McKown slammed a first-inning grand slam and singled to right in the fourth to drive in his fifth run of the contest as the Cats pounded the visiting Eau Claire Express 7-0 at TbayTel Park at Port Arthur Stadium.
McKown, a Lakeland, Fla. native, made no bones about his plan.
He wants to stay with the Border Cats as long as they’ll have him.
“I’m just taking it one game at a time right now. I’m only up here for a short period of time, so I can only make the most of it and we’ll see what happens after that,” said McKown, who also laced a sixth-inning triple to right-centre, his third hit in four trips to the plate.
He certainly made the most of the opportunity presented to him in the first.
After Express southpaw starter Jeremy Mortensen struggled early, loading the bases on an infield single and back-to-back walks, McKown pounced on a 2-2 pitch, crushing it over the wall in left.
“He was just throwing good pitches on the outside corner and I was just fighting them off. I wasn’t expecting too much and he came inside. That’s right in my sweet spot and I just turned on it,” McKown said.
Mortensen lasted just one out, replaced by a much more effective Hayden Kimmer who went 4.2, allowing six hits and two runs.
The early offensive outburst also gave a boost of confidence to Eagen, a junior at Florida’s Eckerd College, who nonetheless had breezed through the first, retiring the Express on just nine pitches.
Still, he admitted he felt the butterflies as he took to the mound.
But they quickly dissipated as he fought to prove to acting manager Lou Bernardi, filling in for a yet-to-arrive Danny Benedetti, he belonged.
“Playing with a chip on your shoulder, especially in a new experience like this, you really just want to come out and give it your all and all three of us did that,” said Eagan, who went six deep, striking out three while allowing just four hits and three free passes.
“The coaches told me since it’s wood bats, obviously we’re going to pitch to contact more often, especially with me not being a high-velocity kind of guy. I’m sort of used to getting a lot of ground-ball outs, popouts. I was thinking what I knew, locating the fastball and letting the bats do the work for me.”
Trouble never really came.
Travon Benton doubled to open the six for Eau Claire, but Cats leftfielder Alan Baldwin made a leaping stab on an Austin Listi drive to keep the shutout alive.
“Without that defence, I might have allowed four runs,” said Eagan, who left after six, throwing 81 pitches, 47 of them for strikes.
Suzuki, who played with the Cats in 2014, pitched three solid innings of relief to earn the save, allowing just one hit, while walking two and striking out three.
Bernardi said the perfect recipe for success begins on the mound.
“And whenever you can get a quality start like that from one of your guys, it puts you in a real good shot to win the game. We put five runs up in the first and (Eagen) was able to settle down a bit. He was nervous at the start, but he came in and threw one hell of a game.”
Getting a win on opening day is a great way to build an early winning culture in the clubhouse.
“I think we’ve got a great bunch of guys from great programs that get that whole winning thing. And when guys are hitting the ball and pitching like we did – Yuji pitched a great game tonight – with guys doing well right away, I’m really excited to see what we can turn this into.”
He’s just hoping he’s there to see how it pans out.
Cat tracks: Opening night attendance was 1,014 … The game was delayed about half an hour when one of the Northwoods League umpires was turned away at the Canadian border .. The Cats play a matinee affair on Wednesday, an 11:05 a.m. start.
