Honkers Blow 2-0 Lead in 6-2 Loss to St. Cloud

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- After four stellar, shutout innings, Honkers (7-32) starter Erik Cha saw his start unraveled in the fifth, giving up three runs with two outs, in an eventual 6-2 loss to the St. Cloud Rox (26-12).

The Honkers got things going offensively in the third when Keaton Weisz was driven in by Alex Fitchett's RBI single, his 21st of the season, to make the score 1-0.  The Honkers could've added more but with one out, Field Manager Trevor Hairgrove as the third base coach waved home Kyle Kasser on Fitchett's single and he was thrown out easily. That hurt the Honkers because in that third inning, Turner Buis lined a single through the left side to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, that would've scored Kasser from third easily.

In the fourth Drew Ellis added to the lead when he smoke a 1-1 pitch to left center for his fourth home run of the year and gave the Honkers a 2-0 lead.

On the mound Erik Cha was nearly un-hittable during the first four innings. He gave up two hits in total, on in the first, and one to lead-off the second, but after Denis Karas' lead-off single in the second, Cha went on to retire 11 straight going into the fifth, with four strike outs.

However after retiring the first two batters in the fifth, Cha unraveled. With Webb Bobo at the plate, Cha fought to reach a full count pitch. On the payoff pitch, Cha put a breaking ball that looked like a strike to him but was called a ball, thus awarding Bobo a walk. After that non-call, Cha hit Brhet Bewley, walked Ben DeLuzio, the gave up an infield single to Ricky Ramirez to score the second run of the inning, Bobo scored on a balk, then Luke Ringhofer drove in DeLuzio with an RBI single to right to give his team a 3-2 lead.

Houston Glad came in and pitched a scoreless sixth but gave up two more in the seventh on a home run from Bewley, then threw a wild pitch allowing DeLuzio to score making the game 5-2.

On the other side, Rox starter Shelby Lackey, after giving up the home run to Ellis, went on to retire the next nine Honkers he faced. On the day Lackey went six innings, giving up five hits, two runs, one earned, while walking one and striking out four.

Stevie Ledezma came in for Glad in the eighth and allowed one run to score making the score 6-2.

The Honkers were unable to do anything on either Robbie Palkert or Brian Glowicki as they were unable to add any more runs on the board ending the game with five straight scoreless, and hitless, innings, striking out five times, including striking out in order in the ninth.

The win goes to Shelby Lackey (1-0) and the loss goes to Erik Cha (0-4). The Honkers are at home again tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 as they play the Willmar Stingers (21-19) at Mayo Field.