Stingers' Estrada lights up Border Cats on Canada Day

THUNDER BAY – The last pitch Joey Burris threw left Tbaytel Park in a hurry.

That’s never usually a good sign.

Burris, making his first start of the season for the Border Cats, after six appearances from the bullpen, was roughed up in a hurry on Canada Day at Tbaytel Park, torched for four runs in the first inning and eight runs in total as the Cats fell 11-4 at home to the visiting Willmar Stingers.

Left-fielder Eddie Estrada was a one-man wrecking ball for Willmar, bashing a pair of doubles and a two run shot that just cleared the fence in left.

All told the Litchfield, Minn. product drove in four runs and scored three times, his 4-for-5 performance raising his batting average from .268 to .326.

“I just went up there with the approach that I’ve had all year and this time the balls were falling,” said Estrada, a second-year veteran in the Northwoods League who hit .354 last summer in 42 appearances with the Stingers.

The fifth-inning home-run, which just cleared the fence in left, Anthony Brocato climbing the wall to try to haul it back in, was the icing on the cake, giving the Stingers an 8-1 lead.

“(Burris) came with a first-pitch curve ball and came with again and I was just sitting on it,” said Estrada, heading into his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota.

“I went the opposite way with it.”

It just wasn’t Burris’ night, said Border Cats manager Danny Benedetti, getting more and more frustrated with a pitching staff that can’t seem to find the strike zone.

Burris walked three before leaving in the fifth, but allowed eight hits and eight runs.

His replacement, southpaw Dan McBryan, issued six free passes in three innings of work, three runs coming into score under his watch.

“It’s on them,” he said of his collection of hurlers. “The offence is here. You can’t expect them to score 12 runs because you give up 10. It’s not their fault. They have bad days, but they also still score four runs on a bad day.

“At the end of the day you have to throw strikes and make adjustments. Some guys are working on it, but this late in the season, it’s unacceptable. Walks kill you.”

Estrada’s two-out double scored a pair in the first and the Stingers (15-17) made it 5-0 in the second on Danny Pardo’s infield groundout.

Estrada doubled and scored on a Danny Woods single in the fourth, the Cats (5-26) finally getting on the board in the bottom of the inning, Shane Shepard singling home Andy Weber from second, the lone run they’d score on Willmar starter Blake Stockert, who’d exit after the sixth.

The two teams each scored a pair in the seventh and single runs in the eighth, the first two Cats runs coming on a Bobby Honeyman single, the final on Brocato’s fourth home run of the season, tying him with Andy Fregia for the team lead.

Attendance was 939.

Cameron Churchill is expected to take the mound for the Border Cats when the two teams tangle again on Saturday.