Lunker clunker

The Border Cats bats have come alive, but on Tuesday their pitching left a lot to be desired.

It can’t continue, said manager Mike Steed, who watched his club get shellacked 15-6 at the hands of the last-place Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers, a deluge that included a four-run fourth and six-run eighth that snuffed out any hopes of a late-game rally.

“We need to have a good outing from our starters every time out. If our starters can go five or six innings, then the back end of our bullpen will show well. There’s no doubt in my mind. Tonight they didn’t.”

Paul Barton (0-3) was the man who drew the starting assignment, his third start in seven appearances. It did not go well at Port Arthur Stadium for the Qualicum Beach, B.C. native.  

Barton hit the first batter he faced, Stephen Wickens, who came around to score two batters later. By the end of the fourth, thanks in part to a Vince Bruno grand slam, Barton was in the showers, wondering what went wrong.

“Paul had another rough outing and I think he’s got to figure a few things out to be able to pitch us deeper in the game. Tonight he probably could have gone deeper, but again, it’s a pitch count thing,” Steed said.

His line was not pretty: six earned runs, on five hits and four walks over four innings. His biggest problem was he couldn’t get the final out when he really needed it.

In the third he struck out Wickens and Bruno, then allowed a double to Tommy Reyes and an RBI single to Chadd Krist before getting David Allibritton to ground out to end the threat.

In the fourth he walked the leadoff hitter, Matt Hillsinger, and gave up a single to Russ Hopkins, but a sacrifice and a ground to third left him ample opportunity to get out of the jam and preserve a 3-2 Border Cats lead, secured in the third on hot-hitting Tanner Nivins’s two-run double off Brainerd starter Connor Mielock (2-0).

Instead Barton walked Wickens to load the bases and Bruno launched a shot over the right-field fence to give the Cats (11-14) a 6-3 lead.

“(Barton) was doing a great job with hitting his spots. He left one up in the zone and I just got good wood on it and put a good swing on the ball,” said Bruno, who was 3-for-6 with five driven in and two runs scored.

Newcomer Conner Little took over in the fifth, but the University of Hawaii product had a rough beginning to his Border Cats career, though it wasn’t entirely his own fault.

Allbritton singled with one out and Hillsinger reached on a misplayed grounder by 1B Ryan Court. Both runners crossed the plate on a deep double to centre by Russ Hopkins and the Lunkers increased their lead to 8-4.

Thunder Bay responded with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning, but wouldn’t score another run the rest of the way.

Brainerd (10-16), on the other hand, kept piling it on.

They went up by three in the sixth and then rudely welcomed Alex Murrieta to life in the Northwoods League in the eighth, lambasting him for six runs in just two-thirds of an inning in his Border Cats debut. Murrieta, from Gateway Community College, was torched for five hits and gave up three walks before Brad Delatte mercifully took over to finish the contest.

Cats 2B Evan Mistich, who made one of three errors on the night, said anything that could go wrong, did.

“It’s a team game. You’ve got to win all three phases. They beat us all around. If we give up 15, we need to score 16, and we just couldn’t put it all together,” Mistich said.

The Cats who kicked off an eight-day, nine-game homestand, will look for revenge against the Lunkers on Wednesday night. Game time is an hour later than usual, at 7:35 p.m., in order to accommodate a pre-Canada Day fireworks display scheduled for after the contest.

Cat tracks: The Border Cats made three errors on the night to up their total to 39 on the season ... The Cats fell 4.5 games behind Rochester with the loss, played before just 533 fans ... The top five batters in the Lunkers lineup were a combined 11-25 with eight runs and 10 driven in ... The Cats have yet to get an RBI from a catcher this season. Taylor Honeycutt, Will Thorp and the departed Brooklyn Foster are a collective 11-for-86, a meagre .128 average, and have one double between them. Last year catcher Dean Forthun had zero RBI in 94 at bats.