THUNDER BAY – Though their season is ending sooner than they would like, members of the Thunder Bay Border Cats will return to their collegiate teams on a winning note.
The Border Cats closed out their Northwoods League season with a 6-1 victory over the Duluth Huskies Sunday evening in front of 1,386 fans at Tbaytel Park, one of the club’s biggest crowds of the year.
“It was awesome. These fans have been loyal to us all year and it’s good to go out with a win,” said Dan Rizzie, who picked up three hits to end the campaign with a 24-game hitting streak that was the longest in the league all year.
A five-run fifth inning blew open a narrow home side lead and they cruised from there, thanks in large part to a strong performance from their pitching staff.
Border Cats starter Johnny York (3-1) cruised for most of his outing, tossing five and two-thirds innings of scoreless one-hit ball to pick up the victory. York was threatened in the third when the Huskies loaded the bases but he was able to escape after forcing Alex Wojciechowski to ground out to end the frame.
Mikael Mogues put the Border Cats on the board one inning later, cashing in the icebreaking run with a two-out single to right.
Thunder Bay expanded the lead in the fifth, as Jared James, Joe Gellenbeck, Rizzie, Nate Nolan and Mogues all had hits that brought runners across.
With the team holding a comfortable lead, manager Danny Benedetti and his coaching staff began making a multitude of substitutions starting in the seventh inning to give every player a chance to take the field.
That included giving Thunder Bay native Carter McEachern, who is unable to bat due to injury, an opportunity to take the mound to start the ninth inning and record an out. Nine different pitchers made an appearance for Thunder Bay.
“It just shows what kind of character every one of these guys has,” Benedetti said. “It’s the right thing to do with us having the lead to try to put everybody in as best as I can.”
Claw marks: Three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Sharp threw out the ceremonial first pitch…James and pitcher Greg Weissert were named to the league’s postseason all-star team…Nolan finished the campaign with 31 RBI, one ahead of James to lead the club.
