Northwoods Baseball: Stingers stumble against St. Cloud

WILLMAR - Two runs in the second inning marked the only offense for the Willmar Stingers on a night where St. Cloud scored in four different frames to win the contest, 4-2, Saturday night at Bill Taunton Stadium.

Willmar will travel to St. Cloud for a rematch today at Joe Faber Field at 6:05 p.m.

St. Cloud took the early lead in the second inning on an unearned run, but Willmar came back with two in bottom half to take the lead, 2-1. Hunter Dozier walked with one out, and Kenny Roberts singled. With two outs, Phil Pupillo and Forrestt Allday hit back-to-back RBI singles to put the Stingers in front.

That ended the scoring for the Stingers, however. St. Cloud tied the game in the fourth on an RBI base hit by Phil Imholte. Imholte struck again in the sixth inning with an RBI triple to right-center field to score Elvin Soto and give the Rox a 3-2 lead. St. Cloud picked up its other run in the seventh when Mark Rhine singled to drive home Andy Henkemeyer.

Andre Wheeler suffered the loss after allowing two runs in 2.1 innings on two hits and three walks. Jerad McCrummen lasted four innings in his first start after pitching in the Northwoods League All-Star Game Tuesday. McCrummen allowed one earned run on four hits while striking out one. Tanner Banks pitched the final 2.2 innings of the game, striking out four while limiting the Rox offense to only one hit and one walk.

Pupillo went 2-for-3 in the contest with a double and his first RBI as a Stinger. Allday finished the game 2-for-3 with two walks to raise his on-base percentage to .498, which ranks second in the Northwoods League. Roberts also had a multi-hit performance, going 2-for-4 with his ninth double of the season.