THUNDER BAY – A spoiler role it is for the Thunder Bay Border Cats down the first-half stretch.
A 6-1 loss on Sunday to the front-running Waterloo Bucks at Port Arthur Stadium officially eliminated the Cats from contention for the first half Northwoods League North Division crown, a fate that really came as no surprise for a team off to a 9-18 start to the 2017 campaign.
It’s about building toward a strong second half said Thunder Bay leftfielder Colton Thomas, a junior at the University of South Alabama who was 1-for-3 at the dish and scored the Border Cats lone run, coming home on a sixth-inning error by Waterloo third baseman Zach Malis.
“It’s all just about getting better, you know,” said the Prattville, Ala. native.
“We got off to a slow start this season and we had some losses. We didn’t play the way we wanted to. The second half is coming up in a couple of weeks. We’re just going to play to the best of our ability every day and give it everything we’ve got.”
Thomas, hitting .289 for the season, said there are plenty of strengths the team can build on in the second half, starting at the plate.
“I think that we have shown that we can swing the bats really well. We have some good hitters in this lineup. And I think also in the past week or so we’ve been pitching better than when I first got here two weeks ago,” he said.
“Our bullpen is starting to shape up and we’ve seen guys come out of there and play really good for us, so I think things look good for the future.”
Thunder Bay only managed four hits off Waterloo starter Anthony Ruden and were held hitless by a trio of Bucks relievers.
Border Cats manager Mitch Feller agreed with a lot of what Thomas said, adding he wants the team to hit the second half on a roll, which is why the next nine games are key.
“We need to keep working toward that second half. It would be great to have great momentum ending the first half and get it rolling into that second half. (Our bats) are something we need to keep working on,” Feller said.
As a team, the Cats are hitting just .243 this season, one of the lowest averages in the league. They’re one of six teams with an earned run average over 5.00.
But pitching wasn’t really the issue on Sunday, at least in the early going.
Starter Kade Kryzsko was sharp out of the gate and allowed just eight hits in six innings of work while surrendering three runs.
The Bucks got to Kryzsko in the fourth, Drew Greendwood and Cole McDevitt plating runs with a sacrifice fly and a single.
Up 3-1, Tyler Stover launched one over the wall in left to open the eighth off Cats reliever Brandon Fokkema. The Bucks tacked on two more in the ninth, Malis hitting a two-out, two-run blast to right to put the game away.
Thunder Bay went down in order in the ninth against closer Brandon Downey, who tossed two innings of perfect ball to earn the save, his fifth.
The two teams wrap up Thunder Bay’s four-game home-stand on Monday night. Waterloo (19-7) leads St. Cloud by 1.5 games in the North Division standings.
