THUNDER BAY – A night after stranding 15 men on base, the Thunder Bay Border Cats got the big hit they needed.
Braden Mosley blasted a three-run, sixth-inning shot over the left-field wall on Friday night, helping to deliver a 5-2 triumph over the visiting Bismarck Larks at Port Arthur Stadium.
For Mosley it was the continuation of his hot-hitting ways, coming on the heels of Thursday’s three-hit performance.
“I realized lately that you have to look fastball and adjust everything else and that’s exactly what I did,” said Mosley, a junior at Southeast Missouri University.
“Basically I was just looking for the fastball in the zone, saw the curveball break down and put that swing on it. It just went.”
It was Mosley’s third home run of the season, tying him with Colin Rosenbaum, Kevin Biondich and Alex Sanchez for the team lead.
It was good to see the bats come alive at the right time,” he said.
“It’s definitely awesome. We were getting a lot of runners on as usual, but this time we were able to drive some in, which is usually what separates the wins and the losses.”
The long ball made a winner out of starter Patrick Ryan for the first time in 2017, as he improved to 1-4, giving up just two runs on six hits in six innings of work.
He found trouble in the first, a couple of rinky-dink hits and a walk loading the bases for Scooter Bynum, who singled home a pair to give the Larks an early 2-0 lead.
But Ryan was able to recover, putting up zeroes the rest of the way – helped of course by the no-hit performance from the bullpen over three innings, courtesy of Jesse Bogacz and Evan Johnson, who tossed a perfect ninth to pick up his third save of the summer.
“I gave up two and then after that I was really just trying to bear down and work both sides of the plate with fastballs,” said Ryan, who lowered his earned run average to 5.85.
“I just knew our offence was going to come around in the sixth and help us out.”
Border Cats manager Mitch Feller chalked up Ryan’s success after the opening inning to one important factor.
“Later in the game he had all of his pitches going, while in the first he only had his fastball going. So guys were able to lay off his secondary stuff. As the game went on he was able to develop more feel for those pitches. I think that helped him when the time came when he was behind in the count. He was still able to go to his secondary stuff,” Feller said.
Ryan was in trouble in the fourth, with two men on and two outs, but wriggled out of it, striking out New Johnson to end the threat. The first two batters also reached in the sixth, but two fly balls and a ground-out set the stage for the Cats heroics in the bottom half of the inning.
Noah Strohl and Gabriel Lozada had RBI singles that sandwiched Mosley’s homerun.
Carson Selin was chased after the latter batter made it 5-2, retiring Andy Weber to end the inning.
But the damage was done.
The Cats (4-5) and Larks (4-6) return to action at Port Arthur Stadium on Saturday night. Game time is 6:05 p.m.
