THUNDER BAY, Ont.—For the first time in the last six games, the Stingers weren’t the team to score first. But Friday night at Port Arthur Stadium, Willmar was the one to come back from an early deficit and eventually knocked off Thunder Bay 5-4 in 11 innings.

Much the same way Thursday’s game started, the first several innings saw the two teams locked in a scoreless draw. AJ Puckett, starting his first game of the season for Willmar (23-10, 1-2 second half), threw four scoreless innings of two-hit ball while striking out five. On the other side, Ryan Powers started in his second straight game against Willmar and held the Stingers off the scoreboard for the first five innings.

With Puckett done after four innings, Thunder Bay (15-23, 1-2 second half) gathered the lead in the bottom of the fifth frame with three runs off of Garrett Anderson. But the Stingers did not go away and struck back for one run in the top of the sixth inning to cut the Border Cats’ lead to two.

An inning later in the top of the seventh, the Stingers’ bats came alive as they broke out for three runs to take the lead. Hutton Moyer homered out to right center field for his first home run of the season to make bring the Border Cats’ lead within one. After Frankie Rios flied out, Sean Beesley reached on his third single of the night to begin another rally. Dan Motl moved Beesley to third on a single through the right side with Beesley running on the pitch, and with Brian Pruett at the plate, Motl stole second base. The throw sailed into center field allowing Beesley to score to tie the game. Thunder Bay pitcher Devin McLemore then balked to bring in Motl to give the Stingers the lead.

The Border Cats answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, but neither team scored the rest of the way until the extra innings when Willmar took the lead for good. Rios led off the 11th with a single and went to second when Beesley walked. Dan Motl bounced into a fielder’s choice that put Rios out at third base, still leaving the Stingers with a first and second opportunity. Max Dutto then pinch hit and blooped a 3-0 pitch into shallow left to load the bases for Jack Ross. A grounder to first off the bat of Ross bought just enough time for Beesley to score the go-ahead run.

 Brady Anderson then came on in the bottom half of the 11th and stranded the tying run at third base to pick up his second save of the year and 17th of his career.

Beesley was 4×4 at the plate with a walk and two runs scored, the second time this season he has recorded a four-hit game. Matt Geislinger picked up his third win in relief for Willmar and is now 3-0 this season.

The 2014 season is presented by Charter. For more coverage of the Willmar Stingers visit the West Central Tribune’s website at www.wctrib.com.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Sean Beesley. 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.