The Bismarck Larks defeated the Willmar Stingers in a crucial division game on Thursday night by a score of 6-5. Stephen Baughan hit his third home run in the last two games for the Larks which ended up being the difference in the game. The Larks improve to 17-14 and are 2.5 games behind the now first place St. Cloud Rox.

What’s Next: The Larks will take on the Stingers again on Friday June 28th in Willmar. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm. Tune in live here at mixlr.com/larksbaseball.

How It Happened: The Stingers took the lead in the first inning after the Larks went down in order in the top half of the inning. For the first time this season, Bradley Collins started on the bump for the Larks. Back-to-back singles scored the first run in the game after Sam Baier lead off with a single and stole second before he scored on an infield single. With nobody out and a runner at second, Collins did a great job to get out of the inning with just one run on the board for the Stingers. Collins got a ground out for the first out before striking out the next batter for the biggest out of the inning. Then with a runner at third and two outs, Collins finished the inning with another groundout to limit the damage to 1 run.

In the second inning, a lead off walk came back to haunt Collins after that runner stole second and came around to score on two-out single to make it 2-0 Stingers.

The Larks then fought back, tying the game in the fourth inning. Ty Condel and Stephen Baughan had back-to-back singles with one out before Wyatt Ulrich drove in Condel from third on a fielder’s choice for the first run. Then David Mendham drove in Ulrich with a double to left center field with two outs to tie the game at 2-2.

The Larks continued their success at the plate in the 5th inning. Clay Woeste lead off with a walk before an Alex Peterson double put two runners in scoring position for the middle of the order. Jacob Rogers then drove in the first run on an RBI ground out and he reached first on an error. Condel then hit a sacrifice fly to right field which scored Peterson to increase the lead to 4-2.

The Stingers got one back in the bottom half of the inning, an error allowed Daniel Walsh to reach second with one out before Justin King doubled Walsh in to make it a one run game.

The Larks then added a pair of crucial insurance runs on a two-run blast from Stephen Baughan in the 7th inning. This was Baughan’s third home run in the last two games. He now has 9 RBI in those games as well. Baughan lead the team in home runs after yesterday and now he leads by two home runs. His home run increased the lead to 6-3.

Justin King then hit a two-run homerun in the bottom half of the 7th to make it a one-run game once again. After Bradley Collins threw the first five innings while only allowing three runs and striking out five batters, Corey Treyes came in for the next two plus innings and allowed just the