June 4th, ROCHESTER, MN – Steven Brault picked up right where he left off six days earlier. The southpaw tossed 6.2 innings, yielding only one earned run and in the process established a new franchise record for strikeouts in a 3-2 victory over Rochester.
Of the 13 strikeouts, eight came in the first three innings and Brault’s (2-0) season total now sits at 21 through just 12.2 innings pitched.
Manager Matt Hollod then used three other pitchers based on situational matchups to record the final seven outs. Andrew Crook struck out one over 0.2 innings pitched and Cody Hughes also recorded a hold, throwing 0.2 innings. It was Bobby McCormack (Baylor) who picked up the final three outs, two of which came by way of strikeout, to close the door on Rochester (4-3).
Michael Suchy doubled and scored in his first two at-bats, accounting for half of the team’s hits. Despite the season low total for hits, the Stingers did enough offensively to support Brault and the bullpen came up with just enough big plays to hold off the Honkers.
In the bottom of the eighth, Kalei Hanawahine of Rochester doubled to lead off before Crook (Meridian) recorded the first out. Hughes (Montevallo) was then summoned from the bullpen to face the Honkers hottest batter, Tucker Tharp. Hanawahine broke for third on the 1-0 pitch, a ball that got away from catcher JD Dorgan. Hanawahine was sent home only to be tagged out by Hughes on a bang-bang play.
Then, in the ninth, McCormack ran into trouble after he inherited a runner and the first batter he faced reached on a bunt single with nobody out. Two strikeouts and one walk later, the bases were loaded and Hanawahine had a chance to tie or win the game with a hit. Instead, Jake Gronsky fielded a grounder to second and flipped to Max Dutto at short to end the game.
The victory puts Willmar at 4-3 overall and a respectable 2-2 on the difficult four day road trip.
