Border Cats Starting Pitcher Ryan Powers collects his first win of the season in a six inning start over the North Division leading. Cats won 6-5. (Photo Courtesy of James Mirabelli Photography).

It was another close affair but the Thunder Bay Border Cats (13-19) never trailed and took down the North Division leading Willmar Stingers (20-7) 6-5 in action at TBaytel Park. Willmar had both the game tying run and game go ahead run in scoring position in the 9th inning. Thunder Bay forces a split and takes their first win in four tries against the Stingers.

The Cats offense was led with multi-hit nights from Jordan Serena (Columbia University), Tyler Rolland (Southern Illinois University) and Nick Studer (Doane College). Studer went 2-2 with two walks and two RBI's. Rolland and Serena each went 3-4 to set the pace at the top of the order. Rolland chipped in an RBI with a double, while Serena extended his multi-hit hitting streak to five games scoring twice, also teeing up a double.

Border Cats starter Ryan Powers (University of Miami-Ohio) took his first win (1-1) allowing two earned runs on six hits, walking two and striking out six. Lucas Scocchia (Oakland University) took his first save working the ninth allowing a run on three hits.

Studer got things started with a two-RBI double in the bottom of the 3rd that gave the Cats a 2-0 lead. The lead was short lived as the Stingers put up a pair of runs in the next half inning. The Cats would re-establish the two-run lead after Cory Kay (Missouri State) drove in Studer in the home half of the sixth.

The Stingers and Border Cats would exchange one run innings in the 7th and 8th. The Border Cats relief staff got out of two jams which could have proved costly.

In the 7th, Nathaniel Leon (St. Peter's University) came on for Reid Peavy (Northwestern State) and got a critical strike out of Dan Motl with a tying run on second.

In the 8th Tyler Lequire (Pfeiffer University) was pulled with the bases loaded and one out. Devin McLemore (Winston Salem State) rebounded from a rough 10th inning and taking the loss last night, as he took care of business and struck out pinch hitter Frankie Rios with a fastball to end the threat; the tying run left stranded on third.

The 9th seen the tying run once again 90 feet away from home for the Stingers, but Scocchia got Casey Hughston to ground out to end the game.

The Border Cats hit the road as they will visit Mankato for a two game weekend set with the Moondogs in Minnesota. Saturday's game starts at 7:05pm EDT with Yuji Suzuki (Concordia University-St. Paul) (1-1) scheduled to make the start in the series opener.