By Lance Jones

It was a one-sided, old fashioned stomping at Port Arthur Stadium as the Duluth Huskies scored six in the early innings and Ricky Reynoso took care of the rest en route to a 10-1 win over the Thunder Bay Border Cats on Thursday night. The Huskies took advantage of 17 hits, three early defensive errors and it resulted in their largest margin of victory to date on the season. The Huskies push their record to 5-4 in the second half and 18-27 overall. Their second half record sees them trail the Great Plains East leader by two games. Thunder Bay drop to 1-8 in the second half and are now at 15-29 currently last in the Northwoods League.

Border Cats All-Star Joe Moran (Anderson University) had a rough start. Lance Ford (Texas) doubled to left to start the game. He advanced on a ground out then scored on a second straight ground out of the bat of Alex Tappen (Virginia). Max Guzman (Faulkner University) stroked a double into the corner to keep it moving in the Husky first. Danny Zimmerman (Michigan) then singled to left to score Guzman and an error allowed Zimmerman to second.

The Huskies poured it on in the second. Matt Hogan (Vanderbilt) led off the inning with another double. He’d move down to third on another ground out. Max Gamm (Nebraska-Omaha) in his first game as a Husky grounded one to short which turned into an error scoring Hogan. Ford singled to left on a nice swing, part of a four-for-five night. Nic Kent (Virginia) reached on a second error that allowed Gamm to come home. Tappen grounded one to third and Conor Allard (Nevada-Reno) caught Ford between third and home and was tagged out. Guzman who also had a four-for-five night cashed in an RBI single to plate Kent and Tappen.

It was 6-0 after that. Moran’s (3-1) start was done. He allowed six hits with six runs (three earned) on a walk and two strikeouts to suffer his first loss of the season.

Husky starter Ricky Reynoso (University of the Pacific) had a walk in the park after that. Nine strikeouts, five hits spread out and one earned run to push his record 3-1.

Justin Moore (Stanford), hitting all of .109 entering play, finished the game replacing Kent in the fifth with a two-RBI going 1-for-3. Dennis Boatman (UCLA) “earned” a save as he came into a 10-1 game striking out five and walking two allowing one over three innings.

Jordan Larson (Northern Illinois) recorded his sixth run batted in of the season in the sixth to break up Reynoso’s shut out.

The Border Cats have now used 14 pitchers, two repeats, over the first three games of the home stand. They will look to fix the malfunctions and get the train back on track in the last home game before the all-star break. First pitch is at 7:05pm as they look to earn the split with Duluth at Port Arthur Stadium. It is Fly Away Friday’s, a chance for someone to win a trip for two anywhere Porter Airlines flies.