THUNDER BAY - The Border Cats are heading into the all-star break on a sour note.
The hometown squad went scoreless for eight straight innings and dropped the series finale to the Bismarck Larks by a score of 2-1,
Despite a strong start from Kade Kryzsko, who gave up no earned runs and struck out eight batters, the bats fell silent after the first inning.
“Just wasn’t able to get the job done offensively,” said coach Mitchell Feller in regards to what went wrong.
“We had our chances, we we weren’t able to make the plays and we let our pitchers down.”
Kryzsko, whose ERA now sits at an impressive 2.61, started off by striking out the first four hitters he faced.
“My fastball was moving more than normal,” Kryzsko said. “My catcher was just mixing up the pitches, and keeping them off-balanced.”
In the bottom half of the first, the hitters matched the hot start when the first three batters reached base.
Kevin Biondic's RBI single brought home Brendan Dougherty to give the Cats a 1-0 edge.
Although the Cats couldn’t capitalize any further, Kryzsko was in cruise control through four and two-third innings.
It wasn’t until the fifth, where with two outs, left fielder Colton Thomas dropped a routine fly ball to extend the inning.
Bismarck’s Cooper Coldiron singled into left on the next at-bat, which resulted in a run after Thomas misplayed that ball aswell.
“I can’t control what other teams or other players are doing, I just had to go out there and keep pitching,” Kryzsko said in regard to the fifth inning.
Ultimately, it was reliever Blaze Bohall who came on in the seventh and gave up back-to-back two out doubles to give Bismarck the lead.
Leadoff hitter Conor Perry provided the eventual game-winning double.
The Cats had the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, but Noah Stroll weakly grounded out to short to end the game.
With the loss, they fall to 4-7 in the second half, while the Larks improve to 6-6.
They will be home to face the Mankato Moondogs on Thursday after the three-day break.
