DULUTH, Minn. – The race for the Great Plains East Division second-half title is coming down to the wire.
Thanks to a three-run seventh on Tuesday night, the Thunder Bay Border Cats remain in the thick of the hunt.
Thomas Cooper and Garrett Sloan had back-to-back doubles against Duluth Huskies reliever Sam Kratz, and Cole Ketzner also doubled in a run earlier in the inning, plating Riley Iffrig, who tripled to open the seventh against Payton Jeffries.
The Cats, who had lost four straight heading into the contest, were trailing 3-1 at the time and then held on to earn a 4-3 victory.
The win leaves Thunder Bay (13-11) a game behind the Huskies (14-10), tied with the Eau Claire Express for second. The Rochester Honkers are a half-game further back.
Duluth jumped on Thunder Bay starter Max Ramirez for a run in the second and added two more in the third.
A double steal in the second gave the Huskies their first run, Ethan Casas-Wu scampering down the line to give Duluth a 1-0 lead. Joe Vos tripled home a second run in the bottom of the third and he’d cross the plate on Ethan Cole’s sacrifice fly.
It was the last time the Huskies would score.
Ramirez got out of a two-on, two-out jam in the fifth, after a pair of walks, and gave way to the bullpen, which shut down the Duluth bats the rest of the way. Bode Gebbink and Peter Fusek each allowed a single hit in four innings of combined relief, allowing Thunder Bay to mount its comeback bid.
Ramirez finished with five innings pitched, allowing three runs on six hits, and four walks. Gebbink earned the win an Fusek grabbed the save, his third. Kratz took the loss. Jeffries worked six innings, allowing three runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out two.
The two Northwoods League teams meet again on Wednesday night at Wade Stadium in Duluth.
Thunder Bay also clinched the Superior Cup, leading the season series against their cross-border rivals 7-4
The Border Cats, in the midst of a 13-game road trip to accommodate the WSBC’s Women’s Baseball World Cup, return to Port Arthur Stadium on Aug. 5 to open a four-game series against Eau Claire.
