Northwoods League: Willmar Stingers out-pitch St. Cloud Rox, 2-0
Jul. 20—WILLMAR — ST. CLOUD —The top two teams in the Northwoods League's Great Plains West Division went at it again on Thursday night. And this time, it turned out to be a pitchers' duel.
The Willmar Stingers beat the St. Cloud Rox 2-0 before 1,643 fans at Joe Faber Field.
Willmar's Chris Rofe (4-0) out-dueled St. Cloud's Tommy Gross (5-1), who picked up his first loss of the season.
Rofe, a right-hander from Mount Marty College, allowed one hit over seven innings, striking out six and walking two. He is now 4-0 with two saves and a 1.93 earned-run average over 32-2/3 innings. He has 39 strikeouts and 21 walks.
Rylen Bayne went the final two innings for the Stingers (10-5, 36-13). He's a right-hander from Bellevue College with a 1-1 record and three saves in 22 innings. He has a 3.68 ERA after allowing two hits and a walk and striking out one Thursday.
Gross, a right-hander from Creighton University, went six innings, allowing two hits and two unearned runs. He struck out four and walked five..
Willmar used three hits, six walks and five hit-by-pitches to beat St. Cloud (9-6, 30-19).The Stingers also stole five bases, scoring both their runs in the top of the first inning.
Stone Miyao was 1-for-5 with a run and a stolen base, Kevin Fitzer was 1-for-3 with a run and two-hit-by-pitches and Parker Stinson was 1-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch, a stolen base and an RBI. Stinson, a right fielder from Indiana State University, is batting .246 in 16 games with Willmar. He has two home runs, two triples and 14 RBIs with a .333 on-base percentage and .421 slugging percentage.
The game took 2 hours and 37 minutes to complete.
The Stingers and Rox play again at 6:35 p.m. Friday at Faber.
Willmar 200 000 000-2 3 0
St. Cloud 000 000 000-0 3 1
Hitting — Willmar: Andrew Sojka 0-1 bb-2 hbp-2, Stone Miyao 1-5 r sb, Kevin Fitzer 1-3 r hbp-2, Drey Dirksen 0-4 bb, Aidan Byrne 0-3 bb, Parker Stinson 1-3 rbi hbp sb, Zach Stroh 0-3 bb sb, Kyle Payne 0-3 bb ... St. Cloud: Haiden Hunt 1-3 hbp, Jackson Hauge 1-4, John Nett 0-2 bb sac, Kyle Jackson 1-4, Davis Cop 0-3 bb, Sawyer Smith 0-2 bb
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Willmar: Chris Rofe (W, 4-0) 7-1-0-0-2-6, Rylen Bayne (Sv, 3) 2-2-0-0-1-1 ... St. Cloud: Tommy Gross (L, 5-1) 6-2-2-0-5-4, Andrew Morones 2-0-0-0-0-3, Jake Burcham 1-1-0-0-1-1
