THUNDER BAY – The Border Cats managed to make an already bad day for the Duluth Huskies a little worse.
Earlier on Saturday the Huskies learned the Northwoods League had stripped the team of five wins, plummeting them from top spot in the Great Plains Division to third place.
A few hours later Ryne Edmondson doubled home Anthony Galati three pitches into extra innings at Port Arthur Stadium, handing the Cats a 3-2 win.
The league cited a roster violation in making the decision, but did not specify the exact violation, removing three wins this week against Waterloo and a pair against the Eau Claire Express. The Huskies were neither awarded losses, nor were the opposing teams given wins for the roster error.
The Huskies dropped from 18-10 to 13-10 before Saturday night’s contest against Thunder Bay.
It was Thunder Bay who struck first in the contest, played in front of 819 fans.
Not surprisingly, it was Edmondson, who leads the team with 35 RBI, who was responsible, singling to score Nate Soriano, the Cats loading the bases with one out against Duluth starter Keaton Carattini.
It took to the fifth for the Huskies to snap Thunder Bay starter D.J. DePiero’s shutout bid, NIco Lima homering on a one-strike count to knot the score 1-1.
Duluth took the lead against DePiero in the seventh, Drew Downing’s sacrifice fly plating Max Guzman from third.
The Cats rallied to tie things up in the eighth.
Canadian Jakob Newton doubled to lead off the inning against Justin Moore, pounding the first pitch he saw.
He took third on an Alexander Hernandez single and scored on a Jordan Larson sacrifice fly.
DePiero had a stellar start for a Border Cats team in need of quality pitching as the roster dwindles, going seven strong, allowing two runs on four hits and four walks.
Jordan Jackson took over in the eighth and went three innings, allowing but a single walk while striking out two to pick up the win.
The Border Cats, last in the Great Plains East, improved to 8-20, while the Huskies fell to 13-11, leaving them 1.5 games behind Eau Claire in the race for the second-half title. He improved to 3-2. Moore took the loss.
Thunder Bay was officially eliminated from contention on Saturday, the result leaving them 8.5 games back with just eight games to go.
