Following a bus departure at 4’clock in the morning and a 10-hour bus ride to Iowa, the Thunder Bay Border Cats prevailed in their season opener with an 11-9 win over the Waterloo Bucks.

The Cats, who recorded 12 hits in the victory and led 5-0 after 4 1/2 innings, broke the game open with a four-run ninth inning to make it 11-4. It turned out they needed those insurance runs as the Bucks rallied for five runs in their last at-bat and had the winning run at the plate, before Makaio Cisneros (Pensacola State CC) struck out Michael Iliff (University of Sioux Falls) to end the game.

Every Thunder Bay batter reached base safely at least once with Dante Smith (North Dakota State University), Alex Kean (Morehead State University), and Lincoln Pack (Pensacola State CC) all recording two hits.  Smith had a two-run double in the Cats big ninth inning uprising.

Carson Small (Pensacola State CC) had a solid start on the mound for the Cats as he tossed four scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, and striking out four. Drew Morehead (Volunteer State CC) pitched two innings in relief to pick up the win.

The two-game series continues Tuesday at 7:35pm ET at Riverfront Stadium with righthander Luke Bryant (Ohio University) the scheduled starter for the Cats.