THUNDER BAY – The Border Cats playoff chances are hanging by a thread, but the Northwoods team stayed alive on Sunday night.
The Cats scored six runs in the fourth inning and withstood a late barrage from the host Waterloo Bucks to pull out a 9-8 road win that kept their postseason hopes intact for another day.
With six games to go, the Border Cats (14-16) would need to run the table to finish at 20-16, and hope the Duluth Huskies (20-11) go on a six-game losing skid to wind up the regular season. Thunder Bay would also need the Eau Claire Express (18-14) to finish no better than 3-3 over their final six games.
Thunder Bay’s Porter Jorgenson picked up the win for the Border Cats, his first in the Northwoods League, a case of being in the right place at the right time.
Jorgenson, who took over for starter Jabe Schlehuber to start the fourth, walked four batters and allowed a run, but because Schlehuber wasn’t able to go five innings, the minimum required for a starter to qualify for the victory, Jorgenson earned the nod.
He entered the game with the Cats up 6-3, having erased a 3-0 Bucks lead through three innings.
The fourth started with plenty of promise for the Border Cats.
Calvin Warrillow singled to lead things off against Waterloo starter Logan Boenker. Jeremy Sheffield walked and Jacob Steinberg singled to load the bases. After Ayden Hadley popped out to third, Junior Lopez walked to score Warrillow, who plated the Cats first run of the afternoon.
A Boenker wild pitch allowed another run to cross and, after walking Joey Ruiz, he was lifted for Parker Bleck.
The walks kept coming.
Devon Smith and Dylan Snead drew back-to-back bases-loaded free passes, which ended Bleck’s appearance at two batters.
Alexander Morrison got Kaiden Ashton to ground out to first, earning the Border Cats their fifth run of the inning. A second run-scoring wild pitch rounded out the six-run inning.
In the fifth, Hadley lifted a sacrifice fly to add to Thunder Bay’s 6-4 advantage and, with Brayden Offenbacher in to pitch, Smith singled home Steinberg for an 8-4 lead.
Sheffield wrapped up the Cats scoring in the sixth, scoring on an error by Waterloo first baseman Mitchell Iliff.
The Bucks battled back in the eighth, scoring three times, but fell one run short of evening thing up.
Jake Bechtel, Marcus Heusohn and Iliff each had run-scoring singles, but Tyler Talbert came in to mop things up and got Caleb Parker to hit into an inning-ending double play, leaving Thunder Bay with a slim 9-8 lead.
Talbert retired three of the four batters he faced in the ninth to pick up the save.
The Cats return home on Monday night to take on the LaCrosse Loggers (14-18). Game time is 6:35 p.m.
