Willmar, Minn.—The Stingers lose to the Larks in the first game of the series. They are now half a game behind the St. Cloud Rox in the Great Plains Division.

Jack Zigan (Minn. State-Mankato) made the start for the Stingers. He completed five innings of work for Willmar. Four runs were scored while Zigan was on the mound, three of them earned. The Maverick from Mankato allowed seven hits, one walk, and had two strikeouts.

The Stingers scored two runs early in the game. Daniel Walsh (Sac City) scored Baier in the first inning with a base hit. 1-0 Stingers. In the second, Kaden Fowler (Georgia) singled to left driving in Bosetti. 2-0 Stingers. The Larks evened the game out in the fourth when two runs scored on three hits. 2-2 tied ball game. Bismarck doubled their score in the fifth. A Stinger error allowed the first run to score in the inning. The next batter had a sacrifice fly out to right to score the second run. 4-2 Larks.

Justin King (Alabama) got a run back for the Stingers in the fifth with a ground rule double scoring Walsh. 4-3 Larks. The game went scoreless in the sixth. Joel Cheatwood (Montevallo) made his debut on the mound for the Stingers and picked up two strikeouts. The Larks scored another pair of runs in the seventh. A two-run home run extended the Larks lead to 6-3. The Stingers had a homerun of their own in the seventh as Justin King left the park for the second night in a row.

Gus Cunningham (Montevallo) pitched the last two innings for the Stingers. He was great in relief facing seven batters and striking out two of them. The Stingers were unable to score a run in the ninth and fell to the Larks 6-5 for the final score.