Christian Stratis might have made the memorable play of the night, but everybody pitched in to the Hot Tots’ second home win of the season. Minot improved to 5-18 on the season with an 8-6 comeback win over the Duluth Huskies on Tuesday night.

For the third game in a row, Duluth put up a first inning run against the Minot Hot Tots, grabbing the lead early on. From there, it was on Minot to keep up. The Huskies extended the lead to 3-0 heading into the bottom of the second inning. The Hot Tots got off the ground with a long fly ball from Charlie Kalbrener that cleared the right field fence. Kalbrener’s second home run of the season scored two runs and made it a one run game.

Charlie wasn’t done yet. The following inning at the plate, Kalbrener came back up with two runners on two out. His next hit was long gone, hitting the top of the scoreboard in right and putting the Hot Tots ahead 5-3.

Starting pitcher Camden Dimidjian kept the Huskies scoreless in the third and fourth, but was hit again in the fifth. Two run-scoring hits and a sac fly flipped the game back in Duluth’s favor, 6-5.

Both teams went to the bullpen in the fifth inning and did quite a job of keeping the opposing offenses quiet. The Hot Tots were again down to their final few outs and in search of a comeback, something they had not been able to accomplish to that point of the season.

Right away in the bottom of the eighth, Minot loaded the bases on three straight singles from the bottom of the order. The lineup turned over to Matt Toomey, who struck out. Next batter Henry Allen went down the same way and Duluth was just about to escape the jam. The following hitter, Christian Stratis, had a different idea. On the first pitch, Stratis roped a double into the left-field corner, scoring all three baserunners and sending Corbett Field into a frenzy. Stratis’ bases-clearing hit gave Minot the lead again at 8-6.

The inning would end shortly after the hit and the Hot Tots went to Nolan Girard for the save in the ninth inning. Girard got a bit wild with a hit and two walks loading the bases. With one out, Noah Furcht bounced a ball to Minot shortstop Ryan Castro who began a game-ending, win-sealing double play.

The Sky Dancer Casino Big Win became the Hot Tots’ first against Duluth all-time and snapped a recent five-game losing streak. Still one game is left for the Hot Tots against the Huskies. The series ends on Wednesday evening with a 6:35 pm CT first pitch.

Christian Stratis took SportClips MVP of the Game honors while Charlie Kalbrener’s towering home run in the third inning was the First Command Play of the Game. The Hot Tots were the recipients of five Buffalo Wild Wings Walks. Austin Puett had the SRT Fastest Pitch of the night with a 93 mph fastball.