Thunder Bay, ON – In the final game of the 2024 season, the Bucks decided they wanted to go out with a bang as they swept the Thunder Bay Border Cats with a 15-8 victory in game two.
In the top of the first inning, Cole Smith (Southeastern CC) smoked a double into the allies sending home Cade Labruyere (LSU-Alexandria) to take an early, but important lead.
Thunder Bay scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and their next run in the bottom of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead heading into the heart of Game #69.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Buck offense added another crooked number like they did twice in game one, but this time they had some help from Border Cat errors. The scoring started with an error to the second baseman when the Bucks had two runners on, the lead runner at third base, Evan Morrison (Grand Valley State), scored on the fielding blunder, while sending the trail runner, Luke Finn (East Texas Baptist) to third. A few batters later, the bases are loaded for Ricky Requejo (USAO) who singled to center field scoring Finn and allowing Charlie Bogue (Wisconsin-Whitewater) and Danny Gavin (Gustavus Adolphus) to advance and then score on a throwing error from center fielder. Requejo then scored on a Lucas Moore (Lousiville) double two batters later and the Bucks’ were back in the lead by a score of 6-3.
Two runs were plated in the bottom of the fifth for TB to bring us within one, but just as it got close, Waterloo decided to bring out the tape measure and make the lead a bit larger. Six runs scored in the inning on seven hits and a fielding error from the Border Cats. The biggest hit of the inning was a two-run double to right field off the bat of Luke Finn scoring Marcus Heusohn (UIC) and Evan Morrison.
Thunder Bay gets one run back in the bottom of the inning, but it was already out of reach as the score twisted to 12-6.
Waterloo plated two more runs in the top of the seventh inning, and Thunder Bay did the same after the seventh inning stretch, but it was already too far out of reach for the Team Up North. In the top of the ninth, Evan Morrison singles to score Cole Smith to bring the Bucks’ scoring to 15 runs and then close out the game in the bottom of the inning from all-star closer Chaney Trout (Eastern Illinois).
The Bucks close off the season scoring 30 runs in two games against the Border Cats bringing their 2024 total season record to 37-32 and an even 18-18 in the second half.
The Bucks thank their fans for an amazing 2024 season and can’t wait to see you all at Riverfront Stadium in 2025.