THUINDER BAY – As Yogi Berra once famously said, “Hit ‘em where they ain’t.”
It’s a simple baseball philosophy, and one that when executed properly, works just fine.
The Thunder Bay Border Cats followed Berra’s blueprint to the letter on Monday night, dribbling and drabbing their way to a six-run seventh inning the propelled them past the visiting LaCrosse Loggers 702 in front of 982 fans at Port Arthur Stadium.
Dylan Snead led off the seventh getting hit by a Jake Jakubowski pitch.
The next seven batters reached and the rout was on, the Cats erasing a 2-1 Loggers lead that quickly turned into a five-run advantage for the home side.
Kaiden Ashton reached on an infield single, Corey Morro’s sacrifice bunt attempt resulted in another infield single, loading the bases.
Jeremy Sheffield, the team’s RBI leader, stepped in and hit a slow roller to the right side of the infield, the ball slipping past the outstretched gloves of second baseman Kedren Kinzie and first baseman Justin Roulston, scoring a pair of runs that put the Border Cats in front 3-2, a lead they’d never relinquish.
Jacob Steinberg slammed a no-doubt RBI double, then Ayden Hadley tripled to deep centrefield, scoring two more. He came home on a Joey Ruiz single, rounding out the Thunder Bay scoring.
Hitting is contagious, Sheffield said.
“I thought it was a great job of capitalizing on some momentum,” Sheffield, his RBI total of 47 tied for the second-most in a single season for the Cats, drawing even with Rob Paller and former major leaguer Jason Vosler, 12 behind the 59 put up by Tyler Duplantis in 2013.
“I think the LaCrosse pitchers did a really good job playing around the zone all night tonight and we just found a way to get barrel to ball. And even when we didn’t get barrel to ball, it just fell. Being aggressive kind of paid off there.”
Not to be lost on a night when the bats came alive was the effort on the mound put in by starter Ethan Minaker.
The St. Andrews, Man. product gave the Cats six solid innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out eight.
The Loggers runs came in the second and third innings.
Max Pederson opened the scoring with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly, but Minaker was up to the task after allowing the game’s first three batters to reach, the southpaw striking out Roulston for the second out. He then caught Xander McLaurin breaking too soon to third and the Cats got out of the inning with an easy out at the keystone corner.
Back-to-back wild pitches in the third landed Savion Flowers on third and he crossed the plate on a Carson Ohland single, the Loggers taking a 2-0 lead that stood until the bottom of the sixth.
“I think I ran into a little trouble early, Minaker said. “A few wild pitches that didn’t help, for sure, but I started mixing in the off-speeds and getting ahead in the count and finishing them off when I had the chance.
“It helped when the offence came back in it late.”
Junior Lopez drove in the Border Cats first run of the night, a two-out single off of LaCrosse reliever Brayden Olson, the Loggers third pitcher of the night.
Luispablo Navarro got the start, allowing one hit in three innings of work.
The win went to Nathe Herchock, who shut the door on the Loggers offence, not allowing a run over the final three innings.
Unfortunately, the win wasn’t enough to keep their playoff dream alive. The Duluth Huskies (21-11) obliterated the Rochester Honkers 17-4, eliminating Thunder Bay (15-16) from second-half playoff contention.
The two teams meet again on Tuesday night.
