THUNDER BAY – First place may no longer be a possibility, but that hasn’t stopped the Thunder Bay Border Cats from continuing their winning ways.
A night after being eliminated from the second-half race in the Northwoods League’s Great Plains East Division, the Border Cats pulled out a third straight win, giving them seven in their last 10 outings, as the team clawed its way back to .500 with a 5-4 decision at the hands of the visiting LaCrosse Loggers.
Jacob Steinberg was the hero, his ninth-inning infield grounder proving too tough to handle for Loggers third-baseman Kedren Kinzie.
Kinzie grabbed the dribbler at a tough angle and his momentum forced his rushed throw to first into the ground in front of him, allowing Kaiden Ashton to race home from third with the two-out, walk-off win.
Steinberg, who upped his average to .373 with a 2-for-5 night, said he just wanted to make contact.
After that, it was up to the baseball gods.
“I was just hoping to get a good pitch to hit. That’s a really good arm they had on the mound. He shut us down for a while there. I kept grinding until I got a good enough pitch to put some pressure on the defence and thankfully it went our way,” Steinberg said.
Kassius Thomas was on the hill for the Loggers, taking over with two outs in the sixth after starter Troy Benko was ejected. Later four of his teammates were tossed, along with manager Josh Frye, after Kelsen Johnson drew a line in the dirt after being rung up by home-plate umpire Santiago De La Garza for the third out in the top of the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth, Ashton singled to lead things off and Dylan Snead laid down a bunt that he beat out, putting runners on first and second. Jeremy Sheffield, the team’s RBI leader with 48, had the first crack at knocking in the winning run, but instead hit into a 5-4-3 double play, setting the stage for Steinberg to play the hero.
Cats manager Joe Ellison said if he had to pick a player to come up in that situation, Steinberg would at or near the top of his list.
“He’s a senior player. He understands the game really, really well. I would have bet you he wasn’t going to strike out in that moment. He was going to make them make a play and show off his wheels as they ran,” Ellison said.
The Border Cats took a 4-1 lead in the fourth, but a two-out rally in the fifth drew the Loggers back to even ground.
Starter Collin Berry retired the first two batters of the inning, but Carson Ohland and Joseph Quelch hit back to back singles. A Berry wild pitch advanced both runners and Savion Flowers singled up the middle to plate a pair of runs. He later scored when Cats catcher Ayden Hadley, on a 2-2 count with two outs, sailed a throw to second trying to catch Kelson Johnson stealing second, tying the game 4-4.
Ellison turned to his bullpen to start the sixth, calling on Jack Smith to hold off a Loggers team headed to the Northwoods League playoffs after winning the first-half division title, but a team that’s struggled to a 14-20 record in the second half.
Overall, the Cats actually have the better record, 37-29 compared to LaCrosse’s 36-31 mark.
Smith was solid, allowing four hits over three innings. Grant Faris took over in the ninth and walked a pair, but struck out three Loggers hitters to escape the jam and give the Cats a chance to walk it off.
“They did a really, really good job. They controlled the strike zone and both pitched out of big, big spots that gave us the opportunity to walk it off,” Ellison said.
Sheffield and Hadley drove in first-inning runs that gave the Cats a 2-0 advantage. Sheffield grounded out to score Snead in the third, his second run of the night and Corey Morro scored on a Joey Ruiz RBI double in the fourth.
Thunder Bay hosts Duluth on Wednesday night, the series and their 2025 home schedule wrapping up on Thursday against the playoff-bound Huskies.
