Border Cats come out swinging for start of 2024 Northwoods League season

Thunder Bay's baseball fans are in for a big weekend.

The Thunder Bay Border Cats are scheduled to play their home opener on Friday at Port Arthur Stadium, hosting the Minnesota Mud Puppies.

The game will be the first chance for Thunder Bay fans to see this year's Cats roster in personandstarts a six-game homestand that will also see the Cats face the Eau Claire Express and Duluth Huskies.

Field manager J.M. Kelly is back for his second season with the Border Cats andhas high hopes for this year's team.

"I know that we'll be more talented than last year," he said. "If we don't win this year,it's not going to be because we weren't talented.

"It's going to be hard to sit there and say, when you look at us on paper, that we're not going to be successful," Kelly said. "I think we've got the team put together to win a lot of games this year."

Kelly said he wanted to see more offence out of this year's team when compared to last year's.

"I think the arms were really, really good last year," Kelly said. "They gave us a chance to win every game we were in, almost. I mean, probably 95 per centof the games, our arms kept us in it.

"We just didn't score enough, and so we really tried to go after some experience," Kelly said. "We had a lot of young guys last year. We had a lot of guys that didn't play a lot where they were at.

"The majority of these guys you're going to see this year played almost every day at the schools they were at. So we'll have a lot more experience offensively, and I think that's going to show when we start playing."

One of this year's returning players is Thunder Bay-born pitcher Jack Pineau, who plays college baseball at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

"We have a lot more Canadians this year, a lot more familiar faces," Pineau said. "I thinkthe fans will like that.

"I know quite a few of these guys and we've got some players here this year," he said. "I think we're going to be really good again, and hopefully we can stay healthy so guys don't have to leave, and be good the entire season."

WATCH| Jack Pineau takes the mound for the 2023 home opener:

As baseball returns to Thunder Bay, a hometown hero takes the mound

1 year ago

Duration 3:03

The Thunder Bay Border Cats returned to their home ballpark for the first time since the pandemic. And if that wasn't enough to get home fans excited, hometown pitcher Jack Pineau started in front of his friends and family and led the team to a 6-3 victory.

The Cats finished the first half of the 2023 season in second place in the league's Great Plains East division, but fell off in the second half, finishing in last place.

"You're playing till the middle of August and guys are like:'Hey, I gotta get out of here, I gotta go home,'" Kelly said. "So now we've got a roster already built for the back half of the season, the last three weeks, in case that happens again.

"But a lot of these guys, I think this year they kind of realized that it means something to say you played a whole summer in the Northwoods and you didn't go home early," he said. "I think this year is going to be a little bit different."

One of this year's new players is Kenneth Sugi, who's from Vancouver and plays college ball with the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

He said good camaraderie among the members of the Cats roster will be important this season.

"I think that's always really important," he said. "Obviously having a bunch of different guys from different colleges, it could be a challenge at times getting along with each other, but I think so far it seems fine."

Kelly agreed.

"it really does matter how you manage," he said. "If you come in and you try to be,for lack of a better term, a hardass, these guys don'tfeel as open with each other. They don't feel like they can talk as much.

"I think summer ball, that's the biggest thing," Kelly said. "The best teams aren't going to win in summer ball. It's the teams that get the closest, that play well together. That's what's going to succeed in summer ball, and so that's really what we've tried to do with these guys."

Kelly said while the people in the Border Cats organization were a big part of the reason he came back for another season, another factor was also at play.

"I think the biggest thing for me is the redemption part of it," he said. "We talk about the players andhow we want what's best for them, and that's always been my goal. And my passion in thisis doing this for the players.

"But at the end of the day, ...last summer was the first year I'd ever lost, first season I'd ever lost," Kelly said. "And so I wanted to come back up here because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it at this level.

"It's a long season and we'll see what comes of that," he said. "But I think we've got a really good roster put together, and and a lot of really good people as well."

The Thunder Bay Border Cats continue their road trip on Wednesday and Thursday, facing the La Cross Loggers, before taking the Port Arthur Stadium field on Friday against the Minnesota Mud Puppies.

A full scheduleand ticket informationare available on the team's website.