Sunday night’s amateur baseball matchup between the Clearwater RiverCats and Becker Bandits was a pitcher’s duel until the ninth inning, when all of the scoring occurred in the Cats’ 2-1 win.

Kellan Graning started and went 4.2 innings for the Bandits, as he struck out four batters and yielded just one hit.  Ethan Guck came on in relief and was also stellar, as he went 4.1 innings and struck out six while yielding just one single hit.

In the top of the ninth inning, the Cats’ Samson Schlegel was hit by a Guck pitch and eventually scored on a Bandit error and Cody Thiery came across the plate for the second Clearwater run.

Becker mounted a comeback in the bottom of the inning, as Josh Groskreutz doubled and scored on a Weston Schug hit, but the Cats escaped a jam to seal the win.  Andy Nefs went seven innings for the Cats, before Thiery threw the final two innings for the Cats to pick up the win.

The win gave the Cats sole possession of first place with a 5-4 league record, while Becker fell to 4-5.