Kept in check

Joe Willman has been about as good as it gets on the mound this year.

On Tuesday the Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers southpaw made his latest victim the Thunder Bay Border Cats. Willman went eight strong at Port Arthur Stadium, allowing just two hits and an unearned run – albeit on a throwing miscue of his own – in sending the host squad to its 12th loss in 13 games, a 3-1 triumph.

Willman, who boasts a 4-0 record and a sparkling 0.75 ERA in five starts, was all business to start the second game of a three-game set.

The 22-year-old Aurora, Col. native no-hit the Cats through four, the first hit coming on a tricky fifth-inning infield grounder off the bat of Ino Patron, who would later score the Cats only run when Willman misjudged a throw to first and fired it over the head of Ryan Abrahamson.

“I was just trying to get ahead of hitters and keep it shut down, pitch to contact,” Willman said, whose team nonetheless will have to settle for second place in the North Division’s first-half race, despite a modest three-game winning streak.

The Cats might have had more in the third, but a sinking line drive by Mike Hubbard was snared by a diving Paul Tiboni in right, ending the two-out rally.

“I didn’t have my best stuff at all. My fastball honestly was all over the place ... but it kept us in the game and I got a couple of runs behind me and luckily that’s all I needed.”

Border Cats manager Mike Steed said there’s no doubt about it, his squad ran into a hot arm.

“Willman pitched a pretty darn good ballgame right there and I don’t think we made adjustments early enough to them. And he threw pitches where he needed to throw pitches and it was his pitch. We couldn’t lay off it early. We swung at some breaking balls early on, swung at some questionable pitches early in the count that put him ahead and when he’s ahead, it’s his game,” Steed said.

To be fair to the Cats (11-22), after the third inning, their minds were elsewhere.

White Rock, B.C. native Zak Miller (1-4) started the contest for Thunder Bay, but a frightening comebacker line drive off the bat of catcher Wade Wass nearly took his head off, his glove deflecting it just enough to avoid a disastrous and possibly deadly result.

Reliever Casey Selsor, who pitched four innings of one-hit ball to close it out for the Cats, keeping it close to give the offense a chance, said it was a scary moment when Miller got hit.

“We were hoping (Miller) was all right,” Selsor said. “It was good to see him walk around. I got to talk to him a little bit in the dugout and he was talking, he was responsive, but anytime a guy gets hit with a line drive, it’s scary.”

Selsor said he didn’t want to think about the alternative.

“It sure caught him pretty good. I’m hoping to hear from him after he gets back, after the X-rays or whatever he’s got to do,” Selsor said.

To add insult to injury, Miller was tagged with the loss, tied to the first two Lunkers runs.

The first came in the third, when he allowed five consecutive batters to reach on two walks and three straight singles.

Luckily the first batter he faced, Andrew Letourneau, was caught stealing or the damage might have been worse.

Dan Olinger drove in the run, hitting a chopper up the right side that 2B Cullen Mahoney backhanded, flipping the ball to first a little late to catch the runner. Christian Stringer rounded third and kept going, beating Kevin Taylor’s throw to the plate.

Reid Rooney, who took over from Miller in the fourth, walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases, then hit Letourneau to put Brainerd up 2-0, Wass coming home to score. Stringer and Nick Hamilton hit back-to-back grounders to first, with Taylor gunning runners at the plate both times, but a walk to Olinger plated Letourneau.

 Cat tracks: The game was played in front of 715 fans ... The team removed third-string catcher Kyle Mossbarger from the roster on Tuesday morning, only to reinstate him later in the day when he had a change of heart against leaving over playing time. The left-handed hitting Mossbarger pinch hit in the ninth, with Steed playing the percentages against Brainerd righty Chase Webb who earned his second save of the season. Mossbarger, hitting .077 entering the game, struck out ... The Cats wind up first-half play on Wednesday, ending a seven-game homestand against the Lunkers ... The Cats approached released Mankato 3B Blair Moore, but the hot hitting infielder told team officials he was home in California and would not be returning to the Northwoods League.