NWL Baseball: Stingers drop fourth in row, fall to .500

WILLMAR - The Willmar Stingers now know what many of their opponents felt like the last month.
Madison’s Dalton DSpain, Logan Browning and Mike Kaelin limited the Stingers to just six hits in a 5-2 Mallards victory in a Northwoods League game Wednesday at Bill Taunton Stadium.
The Stingers lost their fourth-straight game and fell to 4-4 in the second half of the NWL North Division season.
Willmar continues a six-game homestand against Rochester at 7:05 p.m. today at Taunton Stadium.
The losses aren’t devastating since the Stingers secured a postseason spot by winning the North Division’s first-half pennant.
But Willmar has had trouble generating offense in front of their home crowd, scoring just six runs during their four-game skid. They stranded 10 runners on Wednesday.
DSpain allowed the Stingers a second-inning run on Sean Beesley’s bloop single, but he worked five innings and allowing four hits while striking out four.
Browning was even more effective in relief, pitching three hitless innings and striking out three.
Kaelin gave up a run on two hits in the ninth, with Stingers pinch hitter Dan Motl singling in a run.
Madison’s Collin Theroux got the Mallards on the board with a long, second-inning home run over the foul pole in left.
The Mallards’ J.J. Gould hit a two-run homer in the third to make it a 3-1 game.
In the seventh, Ro Coleman and Jean Ramirez singled in runs to put the Mallards up 5-1.
Beesley was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Motl, Reagan Fowler, Eddie Estrada and Troy Dixon had the Stingers other hits.