It appears the Border Cats will get a ninth life after all.
Following the team’s final game of 2010 – a 10-7, 11-inning Monday night loss to the expansion Willmar Stingers – Cats owner Brad Jorgenson confirmed his plan is to bring the Northwoods League squad back to Thunder Bay for a ninth season.
But, he cautioned, the decision isn’t carved in stone just yet.
“We have every intention of having the team back next year,” Jorgenson said. “There’s no question we’ll be getting together after the season’s done here in the next week or so, evaluate where everything is at and make some decisions at that point. But as things stand right now, our every intention is to have the team back next year.”
Jorgenson, who took over ownership of the team in 2007, said financials aside, he’s invested too much into the team not to do whatever he can to bring the team back to Port Arthur Stadium in 2011. Speculation had been running rampant in sports circles that the team might not be back next year, thanks in part to a woeful 651 average attendance this summer, well below the 800 Jorgenson said he needs to make the team’s books profitable.
“It means everything for us to have this team back. We have put a hell of a lot of work into this. I’ve seen my staff and my wife and some senior management people who have worked for a long time – well before I was even here – and they’ve invested a lot into building this into what it is,” Jorgenson said.
The news sat well with players, even those whose eligibility to play in the college summer league expired Monday night, when the Stingers scored four times in the 11th to scrape out the win in the season finale in front of 1,025 fans.
Starter Eric Brown, who exited in the seventh, having surrendered a 5-3 lead on 11 hits and a walk, said he’s glad the team looks like it will be back, even though as a senior at the University of British Columbia, the Thunder Bay native won’t have an encore with the team.
“It should (come back. Look at) the amount of work that everyone’s been putting into this, the Jorgensons and the coaches and everyone. This team is a great opportunity and tonight we showed we have some baseball fans here and it’s a little disappointing to see the numbers over the years haven’t been that great,” said Brown, fresh off a trip to Japan where he represented Canada at the World University Games.
“This is a great league and a great team and great organization and I’m glad to hear they’re continuing and kind of sad I didn’t get to spend more time playing for them.”
Shortstop Ryan Court, whose two-out, two-strike fielding miscue in the ninth sent the game to extra frames tied 6-6, called it great news.
“This is a great town. It’s great that they have baseball here,” the Sleepy Hollow, Ill. native said. “I know, being Canada, it’s a big hockey town, but the support that we got, especially tonight, if we can get that consistently next year, it’s a great place to play. I think it’s awesome.”
After spotting the Stingers a 2-0 lead in the second, the Cats settled in, content to wait until their opportunities arose at the dish.
Ty Wosleger scored the Cats first run in the fifth, crossing the plate on an error by Willmar shortstop Mikey Reynolds. They added two more in the sixth to take the lead, the tying run coming off the bat of Kenny Battiston, who singled, the go-ahead courtesy of P.K. Kitamura, whose infield chopper was enough to allow Court to race down the line from third and score.
The Cats (15-19) and Brown were unable to sustain the momentum in the seventh. Joe Sever led off with a single, followed by an Anthony Bemboom walk. Nate Johnson’s bunted safely to lead the bases, then Matt Serna hit what appeared to be a routine grounder to third.
However Kitamura couldn’t hang on and Sever scored to tie the score. With one out Carlos Leyva grounded slowly to short, but Court’s throw pulled Wosleger off the bag, plating Bemboom to give the Stingers (21-14) a 4-3 lead.
They’d add one more before the inning was done, but the Cats kept plugging away. Will Thorp singled home Taylor Honeycutt to cut the lead in half in the seventh and an inning later Battiston doubled to the wall in centre to score Court from second, evening the score once more.
The Cats weren’t finished. After Kitamura sacrificed Battiston to third and Wosleger was intentionally walked, Honeycutt lifted a sac fly to short centre and Thunder Bay was on top again, up 6-5. Will Krasne came on in the ninth to close it out, and promptly set aside the first two batters. But Leyva battled his way to a walk, stole second and made it home when Court couldn’t corral Eduardo Gonzalez’s slow roller through the infield.
Leyva ended it in the eleventh, laying down a perfect squeeze to score Johnson. A pair of errors led to three more Stingers runs. Garret Houts countered with a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, but with the tying run on deck, Thorp grounded weakly to second to end the game.
Claw marks: No Thunder Bay players earned a berth on the NWL’s post-season all-star team. Every other team was represented by at least one player … The league announced its awards Monday night. St. Cloud SS Steve Nyisztor was named MVP, while teammate Jason Wheeler took pitcher of the year honours. Eau Claire’s Dale Varsho earned manager of the year.
