ST CLOUD, Minn.—For the first time this season the Stingers encountered weather problems, and Saturday night’s game at St. Cloud was postponed until Sunday with the score tied at zero after five complete innings.
Unlike Friday night’s hit parade, the first half of Saturday’s game had very limited offense with both teams combining for four hits, two for each. Locked in a scoreless draw when the game went into delay, the affair was a story of starting pitchers, TJ Whidby in his first start for the Stingers and Reese Gregory in his second start for the Rox.
Whidby was the stronger of the two out of the gate as he shut down the first 10 hitters he faced. The first hit he surrendered came in the fourth inning with one away when he gave up a single to Bradley Strong. Chris Paul followed the Rox first hit of the game with one of his own to give the Rox their best scoring opportunity of the night. But Whidby came back strong to get Rox cleanup hitter Clay Ardeeser, the leading hitter in the Northwoods League, on a ground ball and escaped out of the inning with a fly out to right.
The two-on, one out chance for the Rox was their only scoring opportunity of the game with Whidby shutting them down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning before the game went into delay.
Although Gregory did not start out as strong on the mound for the Rox, surrendering a hit to Frankie Rios and walking Sean Beesley to start the game, he worked out of the inning unscathed and found his bearings the rest of the way. Over the final four innings Gregory gave up just one hit and walked two while striking out eight total over just five innings of work.
The Stingers had a runner in scoring position in the first, second and third innings but each time Gregory answered and quieted Willmar’s bats to get out of the trio of jams.
With Saturday’s game postponed due to rain, the two teams will play the final three innings Sunday starting at 1:05, the original start time for Sunday’s game. The regularly scheduled game will begin following the conclusion of the first game and will be a regulation nine-inning game.
The 2014 Stingers season is presented by Charter. For more coverage of the team visit wctrib.com.
