Contact: Colton Andresen, Media Relations

The La Crosse Loggers lost the series opener against the Willmar Stingers by a score of 12-1 on Saturday night in front of 2,280 fans at Copeland Park. La Crosse dropped to 1-4 as the Stingers won their fifth straight to improve to 5-0 and remain atop the Great Plains Division.

After two frames with the score tied at zero, Willmar pushed across seven runs in the third to put the game out of reach early. The Stingers big third inning was fueled by a 2-RBI double from Cal Elvers followed by a 2-RBI base hit from Chase Stanke. The Stingers chased Loggers’ starting pitcher Mason McMahon (UW La Crosse) after just 2.1 innings pitched. The senior right-hander struggled to find his command with five walks and the Stingers offense took advantage with six earned runs charged to McMahon. Willmar starting pitcher Tyler Bosma scattered three hits across 6.0 strong innings of work, racking up nine strikeouts and not allowing a run.

The Loggers’ lone run came in the 7th frame on an RBI double from TJ Byrd (Young Harris) that drove in Levi Usher (Kirkwood CC/Louisville) who led off the inning with a walk.

La Crosse and Willmar will face off again at 5:05 PM Sunday evening on National Cancer Survivors Day presented by Gundersen Health System and Mayo Clinic Health System.