THUNDER BAY -- Once again a single inning did in the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
On a night the Northwoods League team officially acknowledged manager Danny Benedetti has left the team to pursue year-round job opportunities, the Cats were lit up for a dozen runs in the fourth inning, rallied late but came up short, falling 15-12 to the visiting Rochester Honkers Friday night at Tbaytel Park.
The fourth was not a pretty sight, from a pitching standpoint.
The Honkers sent 17 batters to the plate, collected six hits, walked twice and were hit four times, turning a 5-3 deficit into a 15-5 lead, then hung on as the Thunder Bay bats continued their hot-hitting ways pounding out 17 hits and creating a save situation for Rochester closer Alex Fagalde by the time the ninth inning rolled around.
Reliever Ben Hoffman, who took over after starter Joey Burris was forced from the game following the second after exceeding the league’s one-inning pitch count maximum, struggled in the fourth after a 1-2-3 third.
He hit three of the first four batters he faced and walked Miles Lewis with the bases loaded, the Honkers tying the game 5-5.
Anthony Paesano, who didn’t record an out, struggled as Hoffman’s replacement, Kyle Kasser singling up the middle to bring home two more runs and he left trailing 8-5 with the bases loaded – not the ideal spot for Thunder Bay’s Tyler Moskalyk to make his Border Cats debut.
The young right-hander, who plays at the University of Winnipeg, got them out of the inning, but not before the Honkers (6-8) had tacked on six more runs, four of them charged to the rookie.
“It was poor execution and I think if you asked every single one of them, they would say the same thing,” said newly named manager Cole Mahoney-Bruer, who served as a coach under the now departed Benedetti.
“We need to get back to early work and fixing that stuff. But I thought the hitters did a good job, never letting that falter and you can see by how many runs and how many innings we scored runs that we kept going.”
The Cats (5-9) took a 1-0 lead in the first on Rochester starter Max Gamboa, but the Honkers scored three in the second to chase Burris, Drew Ellis smacking a home run onto High Street to tie the game 1-1, Lewis driving home two more with a two-out single.
Thunder Bay scored four in the fourth, catcher Luke Horanski – who later left the game after injuring his foot trying to beat out a double play at first – singled in a run with a hard shot to short. A bases loaded walk, a wild pitch and a Michael Papierski RBI singled accounted for the other runs.
After the disastrous fourth, Shane Shepard began the comeback attempt with a two-run shot to right, Thunder Bay adding another on an Andrew Weber single in the fifth.
They’d score three more in the seventh two on a Papierski double and Joe Gellenbeck wrapped up the scoring in the eighth with a solo blast, his third.
“The hitters did a good job and the pitchers, it was just that one bad inning. If we cut out that inning, we win the ballgame easy,” said third baseman Jordan Gillerman, who had three hits in four trips to the plate, scoring three times.
All told Mahoney-Bruer trotted seven pitchers to the mound, the Honkers using five of their own.
Jackson Douglas was credited with the win, despite giving up five hits and three runs in two innings of work. Hoffman took the loss, charged with five runs on a hit, walk and three hit batsmen.
Attendance was 832.
The Border Cats host Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday night. First pitch is 6:05 p.m.
