THUNDER BAY – Not even Mitch Marner’s presence was enough to help the Thunder Bay Border Cats end their recent slide.
The Duluth Huskies scored once in the third and added two more in the sixth an went on to hand the Cats their four straight defeat on Friday night, after Marner threw out the ceremonial opening pitch.
It was the long ball that cost the Border Cats.
Ethan Gonzalez led off the third inning with a home run to left and Ethan Cole turned the trick on a 1-0 count in the sixth. Both homers came off Thunder Bay starter Andrew Hardin, who went five innings, allowing three runs on four hits.
Garfield Johns and Griffin Catto each threw two innings of scoreless relief.
Duluth starter Brayden Curtis tossed six innings of shutout baseball.
The Cats got their lone run in the seventh with that started with Andrew Anthony on the bump for the Huskies.
Brody Chrismas walked to open the inning, then took second and third on wild pitches.
He scored on Lucas Terilli’s bases loaded walk, Isaac Rohde on in relief of Anthony. But with he bases loaded and no outs, Cole Ketzner struck out an Kyle Morrison bounced into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
The Border Cats only wrangled up four hits against the Huskies pitching, though only allowed six hits themselves.
With Marner, the brother-in-law of Thunder Bay infielder Greg LaChance, in attendance, the Cats drew 1,512 to Port Arthur Stadium.
The fourth-place Cats (12-11) and first-place Huskies (14-10) wrap up their two-game set on Saturday night.
