The Bismarck Larks fell again to the Willmar Stingers by a score of 6-0. This is the first time this season the Larks have been shut out in a game. They will look to rebound to try and tie the series and retake the lead atop the Great Lakes West division.

What’s Next: The Bismarck Larks take on the Willmar Stingers for the final game of the series June 6 at 7:05 pm. The Larks hope to tie the series at 2 after tonight’s defeat.

The Larks and Stingers were similar in the hit department tonight despite the Larks losing by six, the Larks picked up four hits in the contest while the Stingers had just five.

How It Happened: The Stingers got on the board in the first inning after a leadoff walk cost starting pitcher Matt Gorman in the top of the first. The leadoff man stole second before he came around to score on back-to-back groundouts to allow the Stingers to jump on top for the third straight time in the series.

Sam Baier hit a two-run home run to left field in the 3rd inning to make it 3-0 before Gorman settled in. Gorman retired the next twelve batters he saw in a row. The Larks unfortunately were not able to help Gorman offensively as they had their biggest threat of the night in the fifth inning. A two-out rally was started by a Clay Woeste walk before Zack Gregory was hit by a pitch and Wyatt Ulrich reached on an infield single to load the bases. With Brian Leonhardt at the plate and the bases loaded, Clay Woeste was thrown out at third base to end the inning on a controversial call that ended the only potential runs of the night for the Larks.

The Stingers doubled their lead in the 8th inning to put the game out of reach when Gorman started off the inning with a walk. The bullpen then came in and Trent Sidwell gave up a walk and a two-run double that made it 5-0 before Evan Davis came in a gave up an RBI single to push the Willmar lead to 6. Davis then settled in retiring the next three batters he faced including striking out the final batter of the inning. Davis continued his greatness in the 9th when he struck out back-to-back Stingers to start the inning before finishing the inning with a groundout. The Larks couldn’t get anything going however, as they were shut out for the first time on the season.

Player of the game goes to Matt Gorman who threw seven plus innings while giving up four earned runs and striking out seven Stingers which included retiring 12 batters consecutively at one point during his outing.