Action at Bill Taunton Stadium where Yuji Suzuki threw a complete game and was one hit away from a shutout.

Yuji Suzuki (Concordia College-St. Paul) threw 103 pitches and a complete game to lead the Thunder Bay Border Cats (18-36, 4-15) to an 8-2 victory over the Willmar Stingers (37-18, 15-10) at Bill Taunton Stadium in Minnesota. The Toronto native, pitching to contact, as is his style, allowed two runs on ten hits, issuing just two walks, striking out three for his second victory (2-4) of the season.

The Border Cats unleashed an offensive fury mashing out 15 hits in the contest. Sal Taormina (Kean University) and Ty Blankmeyer (St. John's University) each had three hit nights, with Taormina scoring twice and driving in a run and Blankmeyer, stealing a base and scoring a run. Jordan Serena (Columbia University) went 2-5, collecting his 19th RBI. All-Star Tyler Rolland (Southern Illinois) had the only extra base hit, a double and scored going 2-4 with a walk. And Kyle Comer (Minnesota-Duluth) was 2-4 with a run and an RBI with a swiped base. Four of Thunder Bay's 8-run output came via sacrifice flies.

The Stingers only run production was a parting shot two-run home run in the 9th by Brett Barbier to break up the shutout bid for Suzuki. Things just never seemed to go right for Willmar as four errors cost the team defensively and two of two base stealers got caught by Nick Studer (Doane College), playing behind the plate for the Cats.

Garrett Anderson took the loss for the Stingers (2-2). He pitched five solid innings in his third start of the summer for Willmar. He allowed six hits and two runs, striking out one.

After earning the split against the overall North Division leaders, they welcome the second best team in the North, the Waterloo Bucks to TBaytel Park for a four game series starting Saturday night at 6:05pm.