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Border Cats lose another close one
By Jeremy Kemp, Special to the CJ
Friday, July 24, 2009

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Coming off of the all-star break the Thunder Bay Border Cats were in need of a momentum shift to keep their Northwoods League playoff hopes alive.
They came close against the La Crosse Loggers Thursday, but didn‘t get the boost they needed in a 6-5 loss at Port Arthur Stadium.
Thunder Bay dropped to 7-10 and are now four and a half games back of the North Division lead.
The game began as a pitchers duel, with right-hander Miguel Valcarcel doing battle with the Loggers‘ Richie Erath. Erath would get the win and move to 6-1 while Valcarcel dropped to 0-1.
Manager Joel Barta praised Valcarcel‘s efforts, despite the loss.
“He‘s been a horse for us, he‘s gone out and given us innings and for him to go out and get a decision like that is too bad,” he said.
Both pitchers were on cue after three innings and Valcarcel would be the first to blink. After walking Justin Preckajlo, he gave up back-to-back singles to Chris Engell and Nick Baligod, whose single would score Preckajlo.
Catcher Brett Chamberlain looked to catch Engell coming into third base but his throw went wild and Engell was able to score while Baligod advanced to second. Baligod tried to steal third and home, but was thrown out.
The Cats would cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring single by A.J. Schugel but the Loggers would put the Cats down by two again half an inning later. La Crosse‘s Boomer Collins crushed a Valcarcel offering nearly 400 feet into left centre.
Randy Mower would come into the game in the seventh but Valcarcel, a 2006 draft pick of the Colorado Rockies, pitched well right until the end. Mower gave up four hits and a run to make it 5-2 and saw runners make it to the corners with only one out before he was yanked in favor of right-hander Drew Irwin in the top of the eighth.
The fog started to roll in heavily again causing the ball to become nearly invisible, allowing both teams to capitalize and put some runs on the board. The Loggers went up 6-2, only to see their lead cut to one run after the fog wreaked havoc on the visiting fielders.
After Courcha got on base in the bottom of the ninth, David Philips hit a single to left field and Courcha got the signal from Barta to come home, but he was thrown out after a blistering throw from right field allowed Loggers catcher Rob Brantly to make a beautiful diving tag for the out. Barta argued that Courcha was impeded coming around third. The rally would come to an end shortly after as a Cats‘ runner was caught attempting to steal second to end the game.
When asked why he sent his player home with only one out, Barta knew it was going to be close, but figured Courcha had the speed and the jump off the base to make it home, had he not been impeded.
“You‘ve got about a tenth of a second to say yes or no. . . . We‘re not going to get much faster than Adam in that situation, everyone is going to be slower behind him,” said Barta.
“You‘re damned if you do, and you‘re damned if you don‘t.”
Both teams face each other again today. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Underage drinking forces Loggers‘ hand
La Crosse had to send four key members of their team home this morning after they violated both the team, and league policy regarding underage drinking.
Loggers manager Andy McKay couldn‘t provide many details about the incident, but it was being reported by the team broadcast crew that the four players had been caught drinking while underage, as well as failing to pay their cab fare.
“We had to send four key players home, two starting pitchers, our closer, and our cleanup hitter, major components to our team,” said McKay.
“They made a poor choice and they‘re going to pay a consequence for it.”
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