Catcher in the RBI

It’s taken them all season, but the Border Cats catchers finally have an RBI.

Make that three.

Taylor Honeycutt on Friday snapped a futility streak that dated back to Aug. 8, 2009, when Brett Chamberlain drove one home against the Duluth Huskies.

Honeycutt did it in style, crushing a high fastball over the wall in right, a two-run, second-inning shot that paved the way for a 6-1 Thunder Bay triumph over the visiting Alexandria Beetles at Port Arthur Stadium.

It was the struggling Cats (12-16) first win of a nine-game homestand and ended a four-game losing streak.

For Honeycutt, who was just 2-for-23 in 2010, the 3-for-3, three RBI performance was the first step in turning his season around. The Indian Trail, N.C. native has taken extra time in the batting cage as of late, and thinks the added work is starting to pay off.

“It’s definitely good to finally get back on the offensive side of things, for sure. I’ve been struggling and everybody knows I’ve been struggling, so it’s good to contribute,” said Honeycutt, who raised his average 105 points to .192.

“The coach has come out early with me working and I’ve just been staying with it, not giving up.”

In a circuit where time is of the essence, and teams don’t have enough of it to wait for a player to turn things around, credit Border Cats manager Mike Steed for sticking with the soon-to-be 21-year-old, who hit just .179 at Wingate University this season.

“Obviously winning a ballgame, we’re happy as an organization, but probably (most) tonight for Taylor, who’s struggled all year and it’s been getting in his head a little bit,” Steed said. “About three days ago we took him aside and gave him a different approach to focus on at the plate, getting strikes early and going at it. And he did that tonight, finally he processed it and good things happened.”

Ryan Court began the fateful second with a walk and scored on Evan Mistich’s deep double to the wall. It looked like that might be all the Cats would get, but with Mistich on third Honeycutt delivered off Beetles starter Shawn Riesgraf and the Cats took a 3-0 lead after two.

Riesgraf (1-3) settled down and was in more or less of a pitching duel with Thunder Bay’s Corey Pappel until the sixth, when he gave up one-out walks to Tanner Nivins and Court.

Brandon Garcia took over pitching at that point, and promptly walked the first batter he faced, Mistich, loading the bases.

Ken Battiston singled to score Nivins, Houts walked, plating Court and then Honeycutt delivered again, singling to score Mistich, giving the Cats an insurmountable 6-0 lead.

Pappel (1-1), who gave up six hits and three walks before being lifted, looked strong all night, but after giving up a one-out walk and single in the seventh, Steed decided to play the percentages and bring on relief in the form of Connor Little.

“It was great to have all my pitches working today and to be able to throw everything for strikes,” said the Mississauga native Pappel, whose parents were among the 612 fans in the stands on Friday night. “It kept them off balance enough, and the defence played great behind me, and that’s all you can hope for.”

Little would have gotten out of the seventh unscathed, had it not been for miscommunication among the left side of the infield.

He struck out Will Miller and induced an easy pop-up by Mikel Alvarez that should have ended the inning, but instead 3B Sean Miller-Jones and SS Brett Doe converged and the ball dropped to the grass, scoring Chad Bunting.

Little retired the next seven batters he faced to put the Beetles (15-14) away for good.

“We just needed to all come out and play baseball and I think we did. We pitched well, we hit in great scenarios and we played some great defence. We came out to win a ballgame and we did,” Pappel said.

The Cats, who play twice more against the Beetles this weekend, staved off potential elimination with the win. Any combination of two Border Cats losses and St. Cloud wins will eliminate them from first-half contention.