Peter Fusek (Photo Courtesy - James Mirabelli Photography)

The second half of the Thunder Bay Border Cats is underway.

The team is off to a 6-1 start to the second half while their overall record is 24-17.

The overall hope is to secure a championship, but the team’s field manager is focused on the development of his players.

“Some people in this league, it’s about wanting to win, and some people in this league, it’s about making the players they have better and helping them, you know, build their game and get to the next level, so I lean more towards the latter,” said J.M Kelly.

“We want these guys to be the best players they can be and so that’s what we push more than anything else but at the end of the day, you know, we just got to keep competing every day we show up, you know, you can’t take any days off.”

The Border Cats play in the Northwoods League. The league is focused on the development of college baseball players.

According to the league, it is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 26 teams serving as a training ground for coaches, umpires, and front-office staff.

“The biggest goal is for these guys to go back and win a championship at their school and be able to contribute because they came up here and they became better ball players while they were up here, so that’s what our goal is,” said Kelly. It’s to send these guys back better than what we got them and I think we’ve done that so far.”

Kelly added that not everyone has an opportunity to play the game at the highest level and he wants his players to understand the opportunity they’ve been given and that he wants to help them make the most of it.

The team is away in Waterloo, Iowa for a four-game series against the Bucks. They took game 1 on Tuesday coming away with a 16-7 victory.

The team is back in action Wednesday at 12:05 p.m.