Border Cats ride starter's arm to 1-0 win

If Jeremy Charles and the Thunder Bay Border Cats were looking to set the stage for a second-half run, his pitching performance Tuesday night was a great sign.

Charles retired the first 16 Mankato MoonDogs batters he faced, allowed just one hit and two walks before leaving one hitter into the eighth. Jared James won it in the Cats’ next at bat, lifting a long fly ball to left-field that scored Matt Batten from third with the game’s only run.

“I was throwing the ball well. I was working fast and keeping the hitters off balance. The past couple of weeks I haven’t had the starts I’ve wanted to. I started off pretty slow, but I’ve been working pretty hard at my stuff and I feel like today it all kind of clicked,” said Charles, a junior at the University of Hartford who has still managed to post a 3-1 record this season, lowering his ERA to 3.17, third-best on a pitching staff that has suddenly found its groove this past week.

The Border Cats won four of five to close out the first half at 17-18, allowing just eight runs combined in the process.

Charles, who got ahead of batters early in counts all night long, said it’s all just coming together at the right time.

“We’re all new to the Northwoods League. The umpires are squeezing you a little bit. It’s a little different game out here, but I think we’re all starting to adjust and we’re all starting to throw the ball pretty well.”

The success has manager Danny Benedetti setting some pretty big expectations for a team that finished six games behind first-half champion Willmar.

Go big or go home is the mentality.

“As you guys can see, I think things are starting to change with our pitching staff,” said Benedetti, who has been calling pitches from the Border Cats bench for the past week or so.

“The last six starts the guys are on board. They want to win the whole thing. I just brought up winning the championship in the clubhouse and they were ecstatic. They went nuts in the locker room. If we keep getting starts like that out of the guys we need and the guys hang around here for a little while, I think this could be pretty special.”

Charles threw three different pitches most of the night, 63 of the 100 he tossed called for strikes.

“He even had a fourth pitch he could mix in there once in a while,” Benedetti said. “He was going in and out of the plate and I think his arm slot and the movement of his fastball was very tough for them tonight.”

Tough enough that only two MoonDogs batters made it as far as second base, to the delight of the Tbaytel Park at Port Arthur Stadium crowd. 

Mankato’s Kevin Hall broke up Charles’ perfect-game bid with one out in the sixth, a line shot to centre that fell in for a hit.

MoonDogs starter was almost as impressive as his opponent, allowing just five hits in seven scoreless innings as the Border Cats offence continued to struggle to score.

The game’s only run came in the eighth, Matt Batten reaching on a throwing error by Mankato shortstop Craig Nenning, pulling first-baseman Kyle Weston off the bag. Batten stole second and took third on a throwing error by catcher Jack Flansburg, easily coasting home when James, the leading hitter in the Northwoods League at .381, came through with the sac fly.

The win went to Thunder Bay reliever Anthony Morris (2-1) who tossed two innings of scoreless ball. Sam Myers (2-3) took the loss.

Cat tracks: Attendance was 1,005 … The two teams will tangle again on Canada, the Cats wearing special jerseys that will be auctioned off to fans. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. … Fans enjoyed a fireworks show following the game … James extended his hitting streak to five and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games.