Northwoods League baseball: Stingers earn their first road win
Jun. 2—BISMARCK, N.D. — The Willmar Stingers earned their second victory of the 2023 season with a 5-2 win over the Bismarck Larks on Friday.
Before 1,925 fans at Bismarck Municipal Ballpark, the Stingers jumped out to an early lead over the Larks in the second inning and grew their lead to 5-0 in the top of the seventh inning.
Kyle Payne, the junior from Northwest Nazarene University, hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning.
Jake Hjelle, the redshirt junior at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning.
Zach Stroh, the Elk River native and sophomore at Minnesota State University-Mankato, hit an RBI single to center field to score his Mavericks teammate in Aidan Byrne and Luke Williams in the second inning.
Bismarck's pair of runs came in the seventh and eighth innings. Nick Johnstone hit a sacrifice fly to score Dillon Goetz and Dylan Perry hit an RBI single to score Trenton Rowan.
Ray Cebulski, the junior from Point Loma Nazarene University, got the start for the Stingers and earned the win. He went five innings with seven strikeouts and zero walks, allowing three hits and zero runs.
Willmar (2-1) plays Bismarck at 6:35 p.m. Saturday with an opportunity to earn its first series sweep of the season.
Willmar 020 100 200-5 7 2
Bismarck 000 000 110-2 8 1
Hitting — Willmar: Stone Miyao 1-4, Kevin Fitzer 1-3 hbp sb, Jake Hjelle 1-4 r, Aidan Byrne 1-3 r rbi bb sb, Luke Williams 0-3 r hbp, Zach Stroh 2-4 r rbi-2, Kyle Payne 1-4 r rbi-2 ... Bismarck: Benjamin Rosengard 2-4 bb, Trenton Rowan 2-5 r, Jackson Beaman 1-4, Dillon Goetz 0-3 r hbp, Dylan Perry 2-4 rbi sb, Kai Hori, Nick Johnstone 1-3 rbi sf, Ethan Bergan 0-3 bb
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Willmar: Ray Cebulski (W) 5-3-0-0-0-7, Alex Clemons 2-0-1-0-3-2, Ben Irsfeld 2-5-1-0-0-2 ... Bismarck: Sean Hamilton (L) 4-3-3-3-1-4, Jonny Lowe 5-4-2-2-0-8
