Willmar, Minn.- In an absolute classic of a game that went 14 innings and spanned over two calendar days, the Willmar Stingers walked it off against the St. Cloud Rox 6-5.

In the second inning, the Stingers got off to a good start taking a 1-0 lead. Sebastian Samuels (Montevallo) singled up the middle driving in John Trousdale (Alabama).

In the fifth the Stingers added to their lead. Nic Hernandez (Cal Poly Pomona) drove in Jaxon Hallmark (Nebraska) with a sacrifice fly to center and made the score 2-0.

Willmar doubled their lead in the sixth inning with a Matt Rudick (San Diego St) single that plated two more runs for the Stingers and made it 4-0.

The Stingers got a great performance from Sam Gardner (Alabama) who started the game for Willmar. Gardner went 5.2 innings, struck out six Rox, allowed just three hits and did not allow a single St. Cloud player to cross the plate.

St. Cloud, after Gardner’s departure, managed to get back into the ball game and only trail by one in the ninth inning. In the ninth the Rox tied the game up with a 6-4-3 double play ground out off the bat of Ryland Kerr (Eastern Kentucky). The Stingers did not score in the ninth and the game headed to extra innings.

Both teams were scoreless until the 12th when the Rox took a 5-4 lead. In the bottom half of the inning the Stingers responded. Willmar strung together a number of base hits and tied it up on a sacrifice fly from Shea Kramer (Utah).

The game continued and in the 14th inning the Stingers finally took home the win. John Trousdale ripped an RBI walk-off double into the left-center field gap scoring Tyler Reichenborn (St. Louis) and giving the Stingers a 6-5 victory.

The game ended at the stroke of midnight and lasted just under five hours.

Willmar with the victory now has placed themselves in a tie with the Duluth Huskies for first place in the North Division.

The Rox and the Stingers will face off one final time in the 2018 regular season on Sunday at 4:05 in St. Cloud.

The 2018 season of Stingers Baseball is presented by Marcus Construction. “From start to finish we’ll make your job easier and build a facility you will be proud of.”