Honkers Killed 11-3 After Lengthy Rain Delay in St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD, Minn. --  After four and a half the Honkers (11-35, 4-6) were tied 3-3 but they were held scoreless and gave up eight runs to drop their second in a row, losing 11-3 to the St. Cloud Rox (30-14, 6-3).

The Honkers got a good start from Erik Cha only allowing three runs, two earned, however after throwing 92 pitches, he was removed after four innings.

The Honkers put one on the board in both the first and second to take a 2-0 lead. The first run was scored on a Drew Ellis sac fly in the first, then in the second Casey Worden hit his fifth home run of the year making the score 2-0.

In the bottom of the second Cha allowed one run on Brendan Illies RBI single, then allowing three baserunners to reach, two via walk, to load the bases, and then Michael Strem drew a walk, to score the second run of the inning and knotting it up at 2-2.

Strem was in the middle of things in the fourth again driving in the third run of the game on a groundout to short to drive in Marcus Carson from third making the score 3-2.

In the fifth it went further downhill as Ricky Delgado came in and gave up five runs. In that inning Delgado gave up a three-run home run to Marcus Carson. Strem then came up big again with a RBI triple to score Luke Ringhofer. Strem then scored on Denis Karas double to make the score 8-3.

In the middle of the sixth, the Honkers and Rox went into a lengthy rain delay that lasted nearly two hours.

After that delay, the Rox added four more in the bottom of the seventh with Bayley Chesterton on the mound, and then added one more in the eighth, off Jackson Thoreson pitching for the first time this year and the third different position player to pitch for the Honkers this year, to make the score 11-3.

Ricky Delgado was given the loss to drop to 0-3, and Robbie Palkert got his second win of the season to become 2-1.

The Honkers play their final game before the All-Star Break tomorrow for their second in a row in St. Cloud with a 5:05 start.