Baur's walk-off grand slam sinks Cats in ninth

If only baseball game ended after eight innings.

It’s the ninth that caught the Thunder Bay Border Cats looking Tuesday night in Alexandria. Alex Baur crushed a walk-off grand slam off reliever Steven Pastrana to sink the visiting Cats 12-10, capping a six-run comeback that saw all six batters who came to bat in the inning cross the plate.

It was the third straight loss for the Border Cats (3-10), who fell 9.5 games behind the streaking Waterloo Bucks, winners of five straight, including a no-hitter at Thunder Bay’s expense on Monday night.

The Cats, playing without leadoff hitter Cory Kay, on a school visit to Missouri State, woke up midway through the fifth and sixth, when they scored three in each inning.

Kyle Hann had three hits and three RBI to lead the way offensively for Thunder Bay, while Tyler Stetson and Tyler Duplantis each had a pair of RBI.

The Border Cats rapped out 17 hits, including 11 against Alexandria starter Spencer Koopmans, who gave up seven runs, leaving with two outs in the sixth.

Caleb Smith started for the Cats, giving up four runs and seven hits, but was chased in the fifth. All-star Zach Thiac settled things down, getting his team through the sixth. But replacement Anthony Pastrana was touched for a pair in two innings of work.

Daniel Stoney took over to start the ninth, but walked four straight batters, who all came around to score, the last two on Baur’s game-winning blast.

The teams meet again on Wednesday.