St. Cloud's Liam Bedford hits late-game grand slam to lead Rox past Border Cats

Liam Bedford unleashed a little ninth-inning thunder from Down Under on the Border Cats on Monday night.

The Australian catcher, his team comfortably atop the Northwoods League’s North Division, bashed a game-winning grand slam off Thunder Bay reliever Kenny Glover Jr. (L, 0-1), rallying the first-place St. Cloud Rox to a come-from-behind 10-9 win at Tbaytel Park at Port Arthur Stadium.

Bedford said despite giving up nine runs in three innings to surrender an early 4-1 lead, including six in the seventh alone, the Rox never thought they were out of it.

It’s been that way all season, he added.

“Our team never gives up,” said the Melbourne native, who spent a year in the Philadelphia Phillies organization before landing at Nebraska’s Doane College, where he led the team with a .412 batting average in 46 starts.

“As soon as Connor Crane got our leadoff hit we had a feeling in the dugout that we had a chance to come back and win this game. To get a chance to come up with the bases loaded and the winning run at the plate was thankful enough.

“To get a pitch to hit and actually get it out was incredible.”

It was just his second homerun of 2015.

Jake Farr followed Connors single with a walk and Cats reliever Nate Steger, who took over from starter Cole Staples in the sixth, left after a Lee Miller single loaded the bases.

After a pair of extra inning contests, including Sunday’s 14-inning marathon in Wisconsin, the Border Cats had few options left in their depleted bullpen, and turned to the usually reliable Glover Jr. to get them out of a jam.

A single, a homerun, a double and a walk later and his night was over in a hurry, the Cats now trailing by a run.

It was a tough loss to swallow, said Thunder Bay-born Bryce Jorgenson, making his first start at home.

“Going in the ninth is a tough way to go every time,” said Jorgenson, who collected his first hit of the season to lead off the sixth, scored twice and drove in his first Northwoods League run.

“That’s something to say about the fight of this team. We were fighting the whole game and I think it shows. We came back in the middle innings and closed them down, put up a couple of zeroes. But that’s a first-place team. You’ve got to play all 27 outs.”

Getting that first hit was also a relief.

“I’ve got a batting average now,” he said.

The two teams were locked in a scoreless duel until the fourth, when Austin Anthmann doubled home Bedford with the game’s first run. The Rox added two more in the fifth on Joe Tietjen’s two-run shot and another in the sixth, courtesy of a Jorgenson fielding error – though he did recover and get the force at second on the play.

Jorgenson scored the Cats first run of the night in the bottom of the inning, coming home on a throwing error by St. Cloud shortstop Brandon Benson.

The Border Cats sent 10 men to the plate in the seventh, Jared James hitting a bases loaded chopper that Farr handled, but threw away trying to get the force at second, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score.

Jorgenson, who walked to score Thunder Bay’s second run, came around to score on a Dan Rizzie single.

St. Cloud closed the gap to 7-5 with a run in the eighth.

Mikael Mogues, who started the game at first, retired all three batters he faced, but the Cats fizzled in their final at bat, Nate Nolan caught looking by St. Cloud closer Trevor Charpie with the tying run on first.

Attendance was 821.