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Cats blanked

It’s official, the Thunder Bay Border Cats are the weakest-hitting team in the Northwoods League. It’s starting to cost them ballgames.
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Border Cats pitcher Zach Smith delivers early on for Thunder Bay. He lasted 5.1 innings against Mankato in taking the loss. (By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
It’s official, the Thunder Bay Border Cats are the weakest-hitting team in the Northwoods League.

It’s starting to cost them ballgames.

On Thursday the last-place Cats could muster just five hits against the visiting Mankato MoonDogs in a 5-0 loss that saw only one Thunder Bay runner advance as far as third. It was their seventh defeat in their past eight games.

As a whole the team is struggling to stay over the Mendoza line, and plunged to .202 collectively in taking its eighth loss in 13 outings. Their highest output is five runs, and only one other time did the team score as many as four in a game.

But all is not lost said returning outfielder Garrett Houts, who has struggled in the early going and is hitting just .222 after an 0-for-4 outing against a trio of Makato pitchers in front of 754 fans at Port Arthur Stadium on Thursday night.

“Right now it’s been a few consecutive games where we’ve had some trouble scoring some runs, and I think everyone is just trying to push to do too much right now,” said Houts, a .246 hitter in his rookie season last summer.

“They’re trying to get a hit every single time, instead of trying to get on base. I think as a team we need to relax and calm down and go up to the plate. We’re all here for a reason, because we’re pretty good baseball players. Hopefully we can relax and start putting the ball in play.”

Zach Smith (0-1) made his first start for the Cats and got next to no support in this one; what little he did get was usually quickly erased by a base-running blunder or an aggressive coaching call that made easy pickings of the one runner who did manage to round third.

“I know it’s frustrating for me,” said Houts. “I can only assume that everyone else is pretty frustrated with it too. We’ve gotten guys on base, it’s just a matter of getting one or two more hits during a game and we’ll be fine. If we can just start getting one clutch hit a game, and then move to two clutch hits a game, we can start scoring some runs and we’ll pick it back up.”

Rookie manager Mike Steed said the team can’t continue to rely on one- or two-run performances and hope the pitching staff takes care of the other side of the ball.

That’s not a good formula for winning, Steed said, promising to shake up the lineup with the likes  of newcomers Ryan Court, P.K. Kitamura and Joel Stubbs, who struck out looking in a pinch-hitting role in the seventh with men on first and second and two out to end the Cats best threat of the night.
 
“For the guys who have not produced so far, hopefully it’s a shot in the arm. We can’t put that much stress on our pitching staff and our bullpen. Hitting is contagious. I think if we get the new guys going and bringing their attitude to it, it’s fresh, then I think it’s going to come.
“And you know the way it works. If it doesn’t come, then there will be changes.”

Smith started out strong, retiring the MoonDogs in order in the first, but found himself in trouble from the outset of the second inning.

Jordan Steranka led off with a single and advanced to second when 3B Sam Eberle followed with a hit of his own. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a passed ball that eluded Border Cats catcher Brooklyn Foster.
 
Steranka came home on Danny Miller’s grounder to second, giving Mankato starter Jimmy Stokes (2-0) all the support he’d need.

Second baseman Cody Fick, later ejected for colliding heavily into Foster on a play at the plate, sliced a single over second that plated Eberle with Mankato’s second run.

The Cats threatened in their half of the inning when Tanner Nivins reached second on a single and a wild pitch, but he was gunned down going to third on DH Ken Battiston’s grounder to short.

Thunder Bay had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth, but Nivins lifted a soft pop to third and Battiston grounded out to end the threat.

The Dogs added an insurance run in the sixth, chasing Smith after a four-hit, two-walk performance down 3-0.

The Cats had their best chance to score in the seventh. With two on and one our, Foster singled to shallow left. Nivins was given the green light, but was easily gunned down at the plate on a throw from Miller in left field.

Steed said when a team is struggling, aggressive base-running can usually provide the necessary jump a team needs to snap back, which is why the runner was sent.

Mankato added two more in the eighth off pitcher Jorge Rodriguez, who looked rusty in his NWL debut, giving up two hits, two walks and two runs in two-thirds of inning of relief.
Rodriguez balked home Miller and then Fick came barrelling down the line on Alex Glenn’s hit. Though ruled an intent to injure, the run was allowed to remain on the board.

Mankato manager Mike Orchard was also ejected on the play.

Logan Odom closed it out with two innings of one-hit ball.

The Cats hit the road for a set with the Willmar Stingers on Friday. Their next home game is on Wednesday at Port Arthur Stadium.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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