Honkers Win First of 2nd Half 11-9 Versus Stingers

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Drew Ellis hit two home runs, and the Alex Fagalde held the Stingers to three runs over 5.2 innings to carry Honkers (8-33) to 11-9 victory over Willmar (22-20), for their first win of the second half.

The Honkers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings thanks to a solo shot in the second by Drew Ellis and a error by right fielder Justin Toerner on Keaton Weisz single that allowed Jacob Thomas to score, then added one more in the third when Alex Fitchett hit a double then scored after two groundouts to second.

The Stingers cut the deficit in the fourth on a Jake Becker solo shot, and in teh fifth on an RBI ground out to score Travis Wacher, but the Honkers extended their 3-2 lead by scoring five in the fifth. The Honkers got the first two on RBI singles by Joey Czarske and Casey Worden, in his first game back at catcher after arm issues.

The big blow then came off the bat of Drew Ellis who hit the first pitch he saw over the left field wall to tie for the team lead with six, and giving the Honkers a 8-2 lead.

The Stingers cut the deficit in the sixth as

The Honkers scored their ninth run in the sixth when Turner Buis scored on Czarske's RBI single, after extending his hitting streak to 17.

In the top of the eighth the Stingers struck back scoring four runs of their own, thanks to two errors by the Honkers, that allowed Dylan Woods to come up and hit a three-run shot to right center to cut the deficit to 9-7.

However, the Honkers, as they did all game, added to their lead and struck back with two runs of their own on a Czarske RBI single and a Worden sac fly to make the game 11-7.

Alex Fagalde (1-1) for his 5.2 innings while giving up five hits, three runs, one earned, while walking four and striking out five was given the win. Corey Binger (1-4) was given the loss as he went five innings, giving up eight runs, seven earned, on seven hits, striking out only one while walking six.

The Honkers are off tomorrow night for the first time this month, but will be back at Mayo Field Wednesday night at 5:05 as they face Waterloo Bucks to finish their suspended game from July fifth and play another seven inning game.