Border Cats come up short against Loggers

THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay Border Cats threw away a chance to sweep a twi-night doubleheader against the first-place La Crosse Loggers – literally.

Having battled back from a 6-1 deficit to tie Tuesday night’s contest, they gave it away in the sixth inning, thanks to an unfortunate series of unforced errors.

With two outs and Eli Small on second, the Border Cats lost their focus.

Reliever Cameron Johnson, who came on in the second after starter Ethan Froud soared past his allowable pitch count in a four-run first, walked Xander McLaurin and hit Max Kalk to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Small to scamper home with a wild pitch and then catcher Trey Fikes airmailed a throw to third, and as the ball rolled deeper and deeper into left-field, McLaurin and Kalk raced around the basepaths, crossing home plate with two more runs and a 9-6 La Crosse lead.

It was unfortunate, said Cats outfielder Ty Hamilton, who finished 1-for-4 on the night with a walk and an RBI.

“Mistakes happen. I can’t say I haven’t made a mistake in my life, so I’ll give a round to my guys and we’ll be all right.”

The Cats threatened in the bottom of the sixth, but despite loading the bases with one out, drawing three straight walks, they were unable to fully capitalize on the opportunity.

The one run they got, closing the gap to 9-7 – the final score – came on a Lucas Johnson fielder’s choice that left runners on the corners.

Jacob Miller, who had a three-RBI performance in Thunder Bay’s 14-7 win earlier in the day, adding two more in the nightcap, ended the rally with a ground out to third, Bobby McDonough on in relief of Aaron Mingo with a 2-0 count on Hamilton.

Froud just couldn’t get things aligned in his lone inning, a 50-pitch affair that saw him tagged for four runs on two hits, three walks and two hit batsmen.

Trailing 2-0, Froud got back-to-back outs, but couldn’t retired Max Kalk, whose two-run single to centre doubled the Loggers lead to 4-0.

Miller singled in the Cats first run of the night in the bottom of the first, but Fikes grounded into an inning-ending double play after Manny Alberto walked to load the bases.

McLaurin delivered another two runs with two outs in the second, singling off Johnson, who took the loss allowing five runs on five hits and five walks over 4.2 innings of relief.

There’s no quit in the Border Cats, a team hitting .283 in 22 games. They can score in a hurry and did just that on Tuesday night.

Camden Tanner, Corey Morro and Kael Babin singled to load the bases with one out in the second and Hamilton singled, plating Tanner and Morro. Hamilton was caught stealing second on a close play before Johnson blasted a triple to deep centre-field. He came home on Miller’s follow-up double. Johnson doubled in two more with two outs in the fourth to tie the game 6-6 off La Crosse starter Mateo Gray, who earned the win, allowing six runs on nine hits and four walks over five innings.

“We call ourselves the Rally Cats. The Cardiac Cats, the Rally Cats, all that stuff. I think we show up late and we go hard late,” Hamilton said. “We could do a better job earlier on of minimizing damage and not digging ourselves in a hole. I love the fight in this group and I think we’re going to continue to do that as things move forward.”

The Cats and Loggers wrap up their four-game series on Wednesday at Port Arthur Stadium. First pitch is 6:35 p.m.