WILLMAR, MINN – The Rochster Honkers never led at Bill Taunton Stadium on Tuesday’s night, losing 7-4 in game one of a two game series against the Willmar Stingers. 

The Honkers fell behind 4-0 in the first. Noah Rooney (Minnesota) gave up four runs on four hits in the inning. Joey Walls (University of Nevada Las Vegas) drove in the first run of the game with a single. Aidan Byrne (Minnesota State, Mankato) scored on a wild pitch and the Stingers added two more thanks to a Dalton Pearson (Georgia State) RBI double and Josh Fitzgerald (Dallas Baptist) RBI single. 

Rochester got one of those runs back in the second. After Joe Longo (Michigan) tripled, Kevin Dowdell (West Virginia) drove him in with an RBI single. With the score 5-1 entering the top of the sixth the Honkers got right back into the game. Michael Brown (Washington) drove in a run with an RBI single and Joe Longo made it a two run game with an RBI double to left. 

Unfortunately for Rochester, the Stingers got both runs right back. Aidan Byrne drove in a run with an RBI single and scored on a William Hodo (Alabama) ground out. Rochester scored again in the eighth on a Michael Carico (Davidson) solo home run, his second of the season making it 7-4. However, the deficit was just too big for the Honkers as Logan Samuels (Montevallo) entered in the ninth and struck out the side, recording his first save of the season. 

With tonight’s loss Rochester falls to 5-9. They’ll look for the series split with Lance Santerre (University of San Francisco) on the mound. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. from Willmar.