THUNDER BAY, Ontario — One night after posting a key 10-inning victory, the La Crosse Loggers couldn’t come up with a clutch hit while playing north of the border when they fell to the host Thunder Bay Border Cats.
Thunder Bay, thanks to the standout pitching of right-hander Kade Kryzsko, edged the Loggers 2-1 Sunday before 793 fans at Port Arthur Stadium. Kryzsko (1-2, 2.36 ERA), a junior at Indiana University, pitched eight innings, striking out five and holding the Loggers to five hits while not allowing a run.
The loss dropped La Crosse to 13-19 with four games remaining in the first half of the Northwoods League’s 72-game season. Thunder Bay improved to 12-21.
The Loggers, who are coming off a six-game, three-city road trip that took them from Duluth to Willmar, Minn., then to Thunder Bay, are back at home for a 7:05 p.m. game today with Waterloo before hitting the road again for a three-game trip.
Thunder Bay pushed across two runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a scoreless tie. La Crosse’s Cody Ebert, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior from Columbia (Mo.), tossed five scoreless innings to start the game. Ebert gave up just one earned run while striking out five and walking two.
Jason Seever relieved Ebert in the sixth, and did not allow a run while pitching 1 2/3 innings. Chris Boettcher pitched a scoreless eighth inning as La Crosse received a strong performance from its bullpen.
While the Loggers offense could not get untracked against Kryzsko, it did threaten against Border Cats reliever Connor Centala, a freshman right-hander from North Carolina State. Centala gave up three hits in the ninth inning, including a RBI single by Ryan Mantle, but Centala got Kennie Taylor to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
La Crosse managed eight hits by eight different players, including one from David Villar, who is hitting .357.
