THUNDER BAY – The Minnesota Mud Puppies made the most of their chances – and then some.
The Northwoods League’s traveling team scored eight times on Friday night, while rattling out just five hits, and downed the Thunder Bay Border Cats 8-1, winning for just the fourth time in the second half – three of those wins coming against the Cats.
The Mud Puppies were aided by four Thunder Bay fielding miscues and a three-run bomb by catcher Will Smoot in the sixth that blew the game open, a 1-0 contest suddenly a 4-0 game.
The Border Cats bats continued to struggle, the team only managing three hits against a pair of Minnesota hurlers, starter Tate Marland pitching a gem, going 7.1 innings and allowing one run, striking out seven and only walking a pair.
“Tate had 99 pitches through seven-and-a-third, so the efficiency was helping us. Then we did our job at situational hitting. We didn’t have many hits, but came through when we needed,” said Smoot, a freshman at Iowa Central Community College.
The biggest hit of them all came on a full-count pitch by reliever Nate Melnikoff, who took over for a very effective Evans Hendricks to start the sixth.
“He threw me a lot of off-speed. We had someone take a bag on a fastball down the middle, so I let it go to let him get in scoring position so I could hit him over,” Smoot said. “Then he threw me a change-up on a 3-2 count, I got my (bat) head out and it went over the fence. It felt good and hopefully I can do it a little bit more."
The Border Cats didn’t do themselves any favours in the field.
Maddox Johnston scored on an error by Thunder Bay catcher Colton Allen, giving the Mud Puppies a 1-0 advantage in the third, the run enough to saddle Hendricks with the unfortunate loss. The Thunder Bay pitcher allowed just a single hit and struck out seven through five, lowering his ERA to 3.22.
A little bit of speed on the basepaths also helped the Mud Puppies cause. They stole seven bases in the contest, and weren’t afraid to be aggressive on the basepaths.
Minnesota upped its lead to 6-0 in the seventh, when Tanner Recchio and Brock Larsen scored on a Melnikoff wild pitch and the rout was on.
“It is what it is. That’s just baseball,” said Thunder Bay native and Northwoods League all-star Will Droll, who came on to pitch the ninth inning, allowing a hit and a walk, while striking out one.
“I know tomorrow we’re going to give a pretty good effort and I’m still excited to see the talent that comes in. I think it’s almost a blessing that you get to meet new guys almost every week. They played well tonight. I’ve got to give credit to (Hendricks) for his pitching tonight. It should have been a no-hitter through five, but they gave him a hit.”
Thunder Bay’s lone run came in the eighth with the game long out of reach, the team trailing 8-0 at the time.
Newcomer Ariel Gonzalez walked to open the inning, took second on a Porter Jorgenson groundout and crossed the plate on a Konner Kirchoffner wild pitch.
Claw marks: The Canadian national women’s baseball team took in the game ahead of the Tuesday start of their Pool A WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup qualifier ... The Border Cats take on Waterloo at home on Saturday night, first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. ... Friday's crowd was 2,086.
