Control issues

There’s no doubt about it, the Thunder Bay Border Cats are in a June swoon.

Their slide continued Wednesday night at Subway Field, a lack of control on the mound and timely hits by the visiting Rochester Honkers paving the way for a lopsided 10-1 defeat in front of 602 fans.

Cats manager Dan Holcomb said the team, which has lost a pair of key hitters over the past couple of weeks, has to find a way to work around their struggles.

“It’s trying to keep things consistent. It’s going back to basics,” he said. “I think at a certain point when this happens you’ve got to get guys back in early. You’ve got to get them in the cage, start working on the basics, start working on what we’re doing wrong and making adjustments.

“And if you do that, we’ll start to turn it around.”

They’ll also need to get a little better result from their pitching staff, which in the early going Tuesday night struggled mightily.

Starter Matt Blackham, who only lasted into the third inning, walked four batters and also gave up six hits.

Reliever Kyle Cornett fared little better.

Though he didn’t walk any batters in 1.1 innings of work, he gave up four hits and three runs, sinking the Border Cats into an 8-0 hole.
“Anytime you put that many guys on base, guys in this league hit. They’re great hitters and anytime you do that they’re going to score a lot of runs on you,” Holcomb said.

In the second, when the Honkers scored their first three runs, it was a walk to lead-off hitter Jeff Campbell and a hit-by-pitch by Tucker Tharp that started a three-run rally, aided by an error by Cats left-fielder Cory Kay.

After adding a pair in the third, the Honkers were at it again in the fourth.

Campbell and Alex Greer came home on a two-run, bases loaded single off the bat of Jared Deacon.

Credit to the Cats, it was the last runs they’d allow until the eighth, to Daniel Stoney, who took over to start the fifth. Stoney went three strong in relief, allowing just three hits and a walk in a solid outing.

But the Cats bats just couldn’t keep up.

Jacob Rogers and Tyler Stetson reached with one out in the fifth, but Philip Lyons, playing just his second game in his return to the Border Cats, grounded into the inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. Brad Burcoff and Alex Bautista put the Cats in a similar position in the seventh, but Rogers struck out and Stetson flew to left to snuff out the threat.

Thunder Bay’s lone run came in the eighth when Dylan Becker hustled his way to second on a short shot to right, then scored on a close play at the plate on a single by Jason Vosler of Honkers reliever Seth Fuller.

“Those are the little things I think we’ve gotten away from. Dylan Becker should have had a single on that play, but he hustled it out and got to second base,” Holcomb said. “He put the pressure on the defence. He hustled home on a play that was bang-bang and he beat it out.”

Rochester starter Matt Kent, who threw six innings of five-hit, shutout ball, picked up the win, his second against no defeats.

Cat tracks: The Border Cats will host cross-border rival Duluth on Thursday, the start of a two-game set.