MANKATO, Minn. — The Stingers nearly made nearly made the largest comeback of the season, but came up just short in a 12-10 loss to the Mankato MoonDogs on Tuesday night at Franklin Rogers Park, 

Trailing 12-3 going to the top of the eighth inning, Willmar (11-11) tied a season-high with a seven-run frame to cut the deficit to two. The Stingers then put the tying runs on base in the top of the ninth inning, but a double play ended the potential game-tying scoring threat and a season-high five-game winning streak. 

Willmar sent 11 men to the plate in that eighth inning and needed only five hits to plate the seven runs. The Stingers loaded the bases with one out, and then Tyler Smith (Pepperdine) and Danny Pardo (Montevallo) each drove in a run with a single and a fielder's choice, respectively. Greg Lambert (Southern Illinois) followed with a two-run single, Justin Toerner (Cal State Northridge) had a two-run double, and Eddie Estrada (Minnesota) had a double of his own to score the final run of the inning. 

Mankato led from the first inning after a grand slam in the bottom of the first by Marcus Pingleton, but the Stingers stuck around. Willmar got to within one run after a two runs in the third and one run in the top of the fifth. Smith had a one-out double in the third and came around to score when Pardo reached on a error. Pardo scored later in the inning on Justin Toerner's double. 

The Stingers whittled it down to one run in the fifth when Dylan Woods (Nova Southeastern) reached on an error and scored on a sac fly from Lambert. Lambert's three RBIs give him 13 over his last seven games. 

But that was as close as the Stingers could get, as Mankato answered with five runs in the bottom of the fifth. The MoonDogs added three more in the bottom of the seventh before the Willmar rally in the top of the eighth. 

Despite the loss, the Stingers still finished the season series against the MoonDogs with a 5-3 record. 

The Stingers have an off-day on Wednesday before returning home on Thursday to take on the Waterloo Bucks. Thursday night is t-shirt giveaway night presented by Rambow. The first 250 adults through the gate will get a Stingers t-shirt.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Tyler Smith. 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.

The 2016 Stingers season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.