Stingers Late Efforts Come Up Short in 7-4 Loss

The game began with three scoreless innings for both teams. After three innings, Willmar's starter Nick Lackney (Minnesota) had thrown 50 pitches going into his fourth inning of work.

In the bottom of the sixth, trailing 6-0, the Stingers had their first three guys reach before Tyler Murray (Hawaii) broke open the Honkers' pitcher's outing with a sacrifice fly. One more run was brought in by Luke Becker (Kentucky) on a hit by pitch.

The Stingers tripled to lead off both the seventh and the eighth innings, but were ultimately unable to put enough runners across to tie it up.

The leadoff man reached for Willmar in all of the fourth through ninth innings.

In the ninth, the Stingers brought the tying run to the plate with a single and a walk. Rochester's Spencer Johnson snuffed out their potential rally, eventually leading to the Stingers' first home loss to the Honkers.

Today's Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Caleb Ledbetter (Montevallo). 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.

Ledbetter got on base four times with two walks and a single. He scored one of the four runs of the day for Willmar.

The Stingers move to 13-8 on the second half and 31-26 overall. With their loss and Eau Claire's win, they move to second place in the North Division going into game two tomorrow.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. It will be Stingers stadium blanket giveaway night presented by ACMC. The first 250 fans will receive a stadium blanket thanks to ACMC.

Tickets for all future home games are available online at WillmarStingers.com or by calling the Stingers' ticket office at 320-222-2010.

The 2017 Stingers season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers, visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.