ST. CLOUD—After dropping the first two games of the season to the St. Cloud Rox, the third time proved the charm for the Stingers as they defeated the Rox 5-1 in the first game of an abbreviated doubleheader Sunday at Joe Faber Field.

TJ Whidby went the first five innings on the mound for the Stingers before the game Saturday was halted because of rain, with Hayden Cleveland taking over in the bottom of the sixth inning when the game resumed Sunday.

When Willmar went down in order in the top of the sixth, Cleveland started out the bottom of the inning by getting Charles Galiano to ground out. The inning would get a little more difficult from there though, as Cleveland walked the next batter Eric Loxtercamp. Loxtercamp moved up to second base on a wild pitch by Cleveland, advanced to third on a single by Brad Strong and scored on a throwing error on the same play.

But after allowing a run in his first inning of work, Cleveland got two of the next three batters to escape the inning without giving up another run.

Cleveland followed up his first inning this season with two more scoreless innings of work to keep the Stingers in the game and allow them the opportunity to tie the score. That moment came in the eighth inning. Joey Hanowski led the eighth off with a single and advanced to second on Scotty Smith’s sacrifice bunt. Dan Motl then came on to run for Hanowski and scored on Sean Beesley’s single two batters later to tie the game at one.

The score stayed even until the ninth inning when Sam Hall answered the call. On the eighth pitch of his at-bat, Hall blasted a dinger to right field to put Willmar up for good.

However, the Stingers were not done and went on to tack on three more runs in the inning to give Brantley Claunch some breathing room in the bottom half. Troy Kuhn started the final rally with a single and Max Dutto followed with a walk. When Brian Pruett reached on a fielder’s choice, a throwing error by the Rox third baseman allowed Kuhn to score with Dutto moving up to third on the play. Both Dutto and Pruett would come into score on the next play on Frankie Rios’ single to right field.

The four-run lead was more than enough for Claunch who came in and worked a one-two-three bottom half of the ninth to secure the win for the Stingers.

Cleveland (1-0) earned the win in relief while Dalton Sawyer picked up the lost in just two-thirds of an inning of work in which he gave up four runs.

Klein's masterful start leads the way in 5-3 win

After Willmar picked up its first win since Thursday, Austin Klein was exceptional in his first start of the season in game two Sunday and the Stingers held on late for a 5-3 victory over the Rox to put them back in a tie for first place in the North Division.

Early on the game was a pitcher’s duel between Klein and Rox starter Kenny Anderson. Very similar to the first game, the two teams recorded just five hits through the first five innings of play with Willmar (4-2, t-1st North Division) accounting for three of the five base hits.

Both Anderson and Klein surrendered hits in the first inning before settling down to allow only three hits total over the next four frames. But after two trips through the batter order, third place hitter and first baseman Nick Rivera led off the sixth inning for the Stingers with a single. Three pitches later the Stingers were up 2-0. After Max Ayoub watched a ball and then fouled off a pitch, he took Anderson deep to left field for the first two runs of the game.

The Stingers had more in the tank in the inning, though, and with two outs Alex Borglin started another rally with a single. Brian Pruett followed up with a double to put Willmar up 3-0.

Two innings later the Stingers were back in business, tallying two crucial runs to extend their lead to 5-0. Troy Kuhn led off the inning with his first hit of the game. Tyler Hanson came to the plate next and tried to advance Kuhn to second with a sacrifice bunt, but third baseman Chris Paul slipped trying to field the bunt allowing Hanson to reach on the infield single. Borglin then followed with a single of his own to load the bases. The Rox (4-2, t-1st North Division) countered by getting the next batter Pruett to ground into a double play, but that still allowed Kuhn to score from third base and Hanson to move up to third. Hanson would eventually score on an RBI single by Scotty Smith to put the Stingers up 5-0.

Klein started the bottom of the eighth inning and left with two outs having given up just one run. Hanson came on in relief for Klein with two gone in the inning and although two more runs came into score, one of which Klein was responsible for, Hanson shut the door before the Rox could tie the game.

Hanson stayed on in the bottom of the ninth, and after allowing one runner on with one out, he struck out Danny Baer and got Brad Strong to fly out to end the game and pick up the save.

Klein (1-0) went the farthest of any Stinger starter so far and picked up the win in 7-2/3 innings of work. Rox starter Kenny Anderson suffered his first loss of the year. With the two victories Sunday the Stingers also handed the Rox their first two losses of the season.

The 2014 season is presented by Charter and more coverage of the Stingers can be found at wctrib.com.

 

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Austin Klein. CDI is your local medical imaging provider. It’s your choice where you go for medical imaging, for MRI, CT, mammograms and pain injections, choose CDI. Visit online at myCDI.com/CentralMN.