Power play

The dog days of summer came a month or so early for Matt Beady.

The Alexandria Beetles third baseman smashed a second-inning blast over the right-field fence that bounced into the dog park adjacent to Port Arthur Stadium, paving the way for a 7-2 Beetles win over the Thunder Bay Border Cats Monday night at Port Arthur Stadium.

Beaty then ripped a two-run double in the eighth off ineffective reliever Jason Kafka to put the game out of reach and said afterward it felt good to hit the ball hard, having entered the game with just six extra-base hits in 27 games this season.

“I haven’t hit a homerun in my time up here in the Northwoods League, so it feels real good to get my pitch and put good wood on it. It felt good,” said Beaty, a freshman at Tennessee’s Belmont University, where he’s a teammate of Cats pitchers James Buckelew and Dan Ludwig.

Not to be outdone, Robert Case followed with a line-drive shot to left off Thunder Bay starter Kacy Kemmer, the rare back-to-back jacks staking the Beetles to an early 3-1 lead in a game that was delayed 34 minutes at the start because of a pair of earlier rainfalls.

“I think that put some confidence in our hitters, seeing we were hitting the ball hard early on. That put a lot of confidence in our lineup and when our lineup gets confidence that’s deadly because we have a pretty good lineup.”

Beaty also praised the Beetles pitching staff, who stymied the Border Cats in the seventh as they were threatening to tighten it up with the tying run on second and none out.

Reliever Andrew Bushby, who took over from Alexandria south-paw starter Brandon Johnson to start the fourth, gave up three straight hits to start the sixth, Danny Bethea’s double to the wall in centre plating Adam Landecker with the game’s second run.

But after Scott Donley singled and stole second, Bushby struck out light-hitting Patrick Gallagher and kept the ball in the infield against Kyle Lombardo and Paydon Cawley Lamb to snuff out the threat.

“A big shout-out to our pitching staff for shutting down a potential big inning for Thunder Bay today,” Beaty said.
There weren’t many highlights for the Cats, who lost for the fourth time in five second-half outings to fall three games behind first-place Mankato in the North Division standings.

Adam Landecker was 1-for-3 with a pair of runs scored, while Bethea went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, the other coming in the first to give the Border Cats and Kemmer (1-3) an early 1-0 lead.

Border Cats manager Andy Judkins did not make himself available for comment after the game.

The Cats head to Waterloo on Tuesday to start a five-game series against the Bucks, a team that took four of five in Thunder Bay in the first half.

They’ll play one game in Duluth on Sunday, before heading back home next Monday to take on Duluth for a pair and Willmar for three before the all-star break.

Claw marks: Former Border Cat infielder Chris Curley has signed on with the Chicago White Sox organization … Brett Kay has not been caught in 11 stolen base attempts … Bethea has eight RBI in 11 games and is now hitting .400 ... Attendance was 896.