THUNDER BAY – Playing the role of spoiler can be a lot of fun.
That, and a lot of pride, are what the Thunder Bay Border Cats have left to play for in 2023, and on Saturday night they showed plenty of the latter, regrouping after watching the Waterloo Bucks wipe out an early 4-0 lead, and hung on to edge their opponent 7-6, damaging their playoff hopes in the process.
The Bucks, who trailed La Crosse by 2.5 games heading into Saturday’s action at Port Arthur Stadium, dropped to 3.5 games back, after La Crosse rallied late to beat the Minnesota Mud Puppies 14-9.
It feels good, said catcher Cade Marquard, who was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, the first coming on a sacrifice fly in the opening inning, the second a single to right in the sixth that plated Karson Krowka with what proved to be the game-winning run.
“We’ve got a bunch of new guys and we’re just trying to get comfortable,” said Marquard, a red-shirt sophomore at Iowa’s Briar Cliff University.
“You saw that today. Everybody’s starting to play a little more loosely. So yeah, it’s fun to play spoiler against these good teams like Waterloo.”
The Border Cats runs came in bunches against the Bucks.
They got to Waterloo starter Seth White in a hurry, rattling off four straight hits to open the game. Peter Fusek, one of the few players whose been with the Border Cats all season long, started the offence rolling with a double to centre, followed by singles by Karson Krowka and Blake Warner, whose grounder the other way slipped through the Waterloo infield, allowing Fusek to score easily from third. Marquardt double the lead with a sac fly and Ben Keske legged out an infield single that led to an error by shortstop Elliot Good, Warner coming home on the play.
The Cats added another run in the second, Keske singling in Marquard, who had singled with one out off of Smith.
The Bucks got all four runs back in the fourth, finally getting to Thunder Bay starter Robert Spencer, who had given up just two hits through three innings.
Brandon Fish singled with one out and Michael Lippe reached on an error, leading to an Evan Morrison RBI single. Ben Gallaher plated Lippe on a fielder’s choice, the Cats unable to get the ball to the plate in time to catch him running from third.
Another error, this one by third baseman Ariel Gonzalez, allowed Morrison to score and Gallaher tied things up, coming home on a Drew Donaldson groundout.
Spencer tossed 4.2 innings, surrendering four runs on four hits and a pair of walks, giving way to Ryan Voncracek, who picked up the win, going 1.1 innings before running into trouble in the seventh.
Undeterred, the Border Cats got back on the offensive train in the sixth, with Ethan Bell and Brandon Exley on the mound for the Bucks.
Chad Herrera and Peter Fusek singled, chasing Bell with one out.
Exley hit Krowka, the first batter he faced, and Warner put the Cats ahead for good with a sacrifice fly. But the Thunder Bay bats weren’t done.
Colton Allen singled to score Fusek and Marquardt followed with an RBI single of his own and the Border Cats were up 7-4. Waterloo clawed back in the seventh, Morrison singling in two to cut the Thunder Bay lead to 7-6, but Michael Pirrello, back on the Border Cats active roster, shut things down.
He’d go the rest of the way and was credited with the save.
“The pitching really came through,” said Allen. “We got a couple of shutout innings, a couple big pitches here and there. The bullpen did a heck of a job. The hitters just found good pitches and we kept tacking on, tacking on and tacking on. We had 15 hits. Fifteen hits are going to win you a lot of ballgames.”
The Cats (10-19) and Bucks (19-9) wrap up their series on Sunday at 1:35 p.m.
Attendance was 828.
