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Border Cats outlast St. Cloud in marathon extra-inning thriller

It was the longest game in Border Cats history, and as it turns out, it was worth the wait for the home-team faithful who stuck around to see it end.
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Border Cats second baseman Grant McKown slides home safely after St. Cloud pitcher Trevor Charpie couldn't corral the throw after a wild pitch. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

It was the longest game in Border Cats history, and as it turns out, it was worth the wait for the home-team faithful who stuck around to see it end. 

With the bases loaded and two outs, Grant McKown raced home from third on Trevor Charpie’s 16th-inning wild pitch, earning Cats a hard-fought 4-3 win over the first-place St. Cloud Rox.

McKown might have been the guy mobbed and doused with icy water by his teammates, but it was reliever Jimmy Murphy who made the win possible.

The right-hander, who just three days ago tossed 7.1 in relief, went 8.1 innings of sparkling three-hit ball out of the bullpen on Tuesday, holding St. Cloud, the top-scoring team in the Northwoods League’s North Division off the score sheet after taking over from starter Greg Weissert in the seventh.

“Murphy saved us,” said Cats manager Danny Benedetti, tossed by the on-field officials after loudly disagreeing  on a 13th inning interference call at second, arguing Joe Gellenbeck  

“It was a wild one,” said Murphy, a sophomore at New York’s Fordham University.

“We’ve had a couple of extra-inning games the past few days, so we’re just trying to grind out and get a run across. It took a while, but we were able to get one in at the end there.”

Though he was on the bench when McKown slid home in a cloud of dust, no one was cheering louder than Murphy when the four-hour-plus game finally came to a conclusion.

“It felt awesome,” he said, relying on his fastball and changeup to get the job done.

“It was a long one and you always want to get those so it was nice to get the win after being there so long. It was nice to win it.”
It was a game that had a little bit of everything.

The Rox took the lead in the second, Connor Crane driving three-run shot over the wall in left. But Weissert was stingy in a starting role retiring the next seven batters and 10 of the next 12, allowing the Cats bats to begin the comeback.

Mikael Mogues, on an infield grounder, and Max Dutto, with a bases-loaded walk, accounted for a pair of Border Cats runs in the fourth, chasing Rox starter Brett DeGagne.

Jared James tied the game an inning later, coming home on a throwing error by St. Cloud shortstop Brett Pope.

Then the runs stopped, seemingly for good as the goose eggs began piling up.

Starting in the eighth, Murphy retired 13 straight batters.  In the 12th, with Jake Farr on first, Marcus Carson drove a ball into the St. Cloud bullpen.

Nate Nolan, a catcher by trade, came up throwing, Farr chugging around third, the go-ahead run in his sights. Nolan overthrew both cutoffs, but the ball was on the money and Carson was out by half-a-dozen steps.

“You wouldn’t expect that from a guy throwing the ball from down the left-field line,” Benedetti said. “But with a catcher’s arm, like he’s got, it’s nice to have out there.”

Charpie, the Rox outstanding closer, was in his fourth inning of work when the winning run scored. Max Dutto started the charge with a one-out single and went to third on Pope’s second error of the contest. Charpie walked Jared James to load the bases with two outs, but seeking the force, his second pitch to Dan Rizzie caromed off the dirt to the backstop to end the contest.

The Cats improved to 10-15, winning for the fifth time in six outings. St. Cloud fell to 18-7.

Thunder Bay will host Duluth on Wednesday in an afternoon/evening doubleheader.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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