WILLMAR, Minn.—In yet another game where the Stingers mounted a rally to take a lead, the visiting St. Cloud Rox had a late surge to pull out the 8-5 win in the Highway 23 Series at Bill Taunton Stadium Thursday night.

But despite the loss, the night was not without plenty of fireworks for Willmar (26-12 overall, 5-4 second half), which, for the second straight night, hit three home runs in the game. After falling down 2-0 going to the bottom of the fifth inning following a slow offensive start, the Stingers warmed up with their first home run, coming off of St. Cloud starter Josh Taylor. Troy Kuhn kept the inning going for the Stingers and after the home run to lead off the inning, he followed with a single. Frankie Rios walked to put two on and a sacrifice bunt by Max Dutto moved both runners up a base to second and third. The next batter Dan Motl sent one on the ground to short, which was deep enough to bring in Kuhn to tie the game. 

The Stingers took the lead in the very next inning on the second blast of the game and the sixth home run of the year for Nick Rivera. Then in the eighth inning Troy Kuhn came up and got his third hit of the game, a no doubt dinger to left center field to make it a 5-2.

St. Cloud tallied three in the next two innings though to take the 8-5 lead, which would hold up as the final in 10 innings.

Willmar closes out the homestand tomorrow with the second game of the two-game series with St. Cloud. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Beehive.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Troy Kuhn. 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.