Duncan Matthews (pictured), homered in the Border Cats loss on Friday in Rochester.

The Thunder Bay Border Cats ended up with a split of their two-game series in Rochester as the Honkers scored a 5-2 victory on Friday night at Mayo Field for their first win in four tries against the leaders of the Great Plains East Division.

The Honkers were up 3-1 and padded their lead by producing a pair of runs in the sixth inning to round out the scoring as Rochester won for just the third time in 18 games this season. The loss dropped the Cats record to 11-5.

The Cats scored their two runs on an RBI groundout by Brody Chrisman (Purdue University), in the fourth inning and a solo home run off the bat of Duncan Matthews (University of South Alabama), in the top of the ninth, his first round tripper of the campaign.

Caleb Bunch (Northwestern State University), started for the Cats and took the loss to fall to 0-1. The righthander allowed three runs on seven hits over five innings with one walk and five strikeouts.

The Cats return home Saturday to face the Wausau Woodchucks at 6:35pm ET in a matchup of the top two teams in the Northwoods League. Thunder Bay’s Jack Pineau (Creighton University), will make his third start of the season. The righthander is 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings pitched.

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The Thunder Bay Border Cats are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Entering its’ 31st season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 26 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, over 350 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TEX), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (STL) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, 2021 and 2023 All-Star, MLB Gold Glove winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. League games are viewable live at watchnwl.com and on ESPN+. For more information visit www.bordercatsbaseball.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rockers as your favorite team.