EAU CLAIRE – For the second straight night, the Eau Claire Express scored five times in an inning en route to a win over the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
The Express, up 3-0 at the time, jumped all over Thunder Bay reliever Carter Wall, who came on to start the seventh.
A Sean Barta single to lead things off quickly compounded. Ian Guanzon walked, Matthew Cormier singled to left to score Barta, and Jackso Glueck doubled to centre. After Adam Salazar was retired, Alex Hendrickson and Marcelino Alonso had back-to-back RBI singles and the rout was on.
The Express went on to win the contest 8-3, handing the last-place Cats an 8-3 defeat.
Thunder Bay did manage to put runs on the board in the eighth and ninth innings.
Jacob Miller was plunked by Myles Seid with the bases loaded, but Calvin Warrillow took most of the wind out of the sails of the eighth-inning rally, grounding into a 4-6-3, run-scoring double play.
The Border Cats got the first two runners on in the ninth, but only managed a single run, coming on after a wild pitch advanced the runners to third and Jeremy Sheffield grounded out, Devon Smith crossing the plate.
Austin Mattingly earned the win for Eau Claire, pitching six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out eight. Jeff Tiw got the start for Thunder Bay, tossing four shutout innings before giving way to Grant Faris to start the fifth.
Faris was roughed up for three runs – a pair of wild pitches allowing two of the runs to count.
The Border Cats (2-6) move on to Duluth to face the 8-1, first-place Huskies on Wednesday and Thursday.
