Northwoods League: Stingers' streak hits double digits

Joe Brown, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·4 min read

Aug. 1—WILLMAR — A steady stream of Willmar Stingers crossed home plate on Sunday afternoon.

In front of 1,112 baseball fans at Bill Taunton Stadium, Willmar won its 11th straight game after piecing together 20 hits in a 27-2 Northwoods League victory over the Bismarck Larks.

Seven Stingers finished the game with multiple hits.

Will Safford, the team's No. 9 hiter, was 4-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, four runs scored and three RBIs. Zac Corbin, Will Hodo and Josh Fitzgerald each had three hits. Drey Dirksen, Aidan Byrne and Nick Terrell each tallied two hits.

Corbin also scored five runs. Hodo and Fitzgerald each had four RBIs. Along with Safford, Hodo, Dirksen and Fitzgerald each had a home run.

While the offense hit the laces off the ball, Jack Habeck kept his record spotless on the mound. The St. Cloud State redshirt sophomore tossed six innings to move his record to 8-0. He has a 1.76 ERA with 37 strikeouts.

Bismarck 001 010 000-2 11 1

Willmar 551 270 43x-27 20 2

Hitting — Bismarck: L Glascoe 3-5 r-2, A Barraza 2-4 bb, G Macias 2-4, S Surrett 1-4, B Preap 1-4, A Axtell 1-4, J Hjelle 1-4, S Sarringar 0-5 rbi-2 ... Willmar: Zac Corbin 3-6 r-5 rbi bb sb, Will Hodo 3-5 hr r-2 rbi-4, Drey Dirksen 2-4 hr 2b r-3 rbi-2 bb-2 hbp, Aidan Byrne 2-2 2b r-4 rbi bb-2 sb, Josh Fitzgerald 3-5 hr 2b r-3 rbi-4 hbp-2, Nick Terrell 2-6 2b r rbi-2, Will Safford 4-5 hr 2b-2 r-4 rbi-3 bb, Graysen Tarlow 1-1 r-2 rbi-2 bb, Joey Walls 0-2 r-2 bb-2, Jordan Sagedahl 0-1 r hbp-2, Dalton Pearson 0-1 rbi bb-2, Jakob Christian 0-5 rbi-3 bb sf

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Bismarck: Josh Combs (L, 0-4) 2-8-10-10-3-0, Alec Danen 2-4-3-3-1-1, Julio Romero 0.2-4-7-6-2-0, Ryan Curran 1.2-2-4-4-4-1, Kaiden Cardoso 0.2-0-0-0-0-0, Jackson Beaman 1-2-3-3-2-0 ... Willmar: Jack Habeck (W, 8-0) 6-8-2-2-1-3, Will Roguske 3-3-0-0-1-5

Drey Dirksen sent the 1,200 hometown fans happy after cracking a walk-off home run to give Willmar the 10-inning victory over Bismarck at Bill Taunton Stadium.

Dirksen, a Willmar High School grad and Augustana sophomore, belted a two-run homer over the left-field fence. It was his eighth home run of the season.

Joey Walls also went deep for the Stingers. The California State-Long Beach junior hit his ninth homer of the summer with a solo shot in the first inning. He finished 2-for-5.

Making his third appearance of the season, Brian Baker got his first win after tossing three innings of relief.

Kaiden Cardoso was 2-for-5 for the visiting Larks. Spencer Sarringer went deep for Bismarck, hitting a solo home run to lead off the top of the second.

Bismarck 012 100 001 1-6 8 0

Willmar 101 003 000 2-7 7 1

Hitting — Bismarck: AJ Barraza 1-4 2b r bb, Adam Axtell 1-4 rbi-2 sf, Spencer Sarringar 1-4 hr r rbi-2 bb, Seth Surrett 1-4 2b r bb, Kaiden Cardoso 2-5 r rbi, Tommy Takayoshi 1-5 2b, Khalid Collymore 1-3 hbp sb, Luke Glascoe 0-3 r-2 bb-2 ... Willmar: Aidan Byrne 1-4 rbi bb, Joey Walls 2-5 hr r rbi-2, Drey Dirksen 1-4 hr r-2 rbi bb sb, Brett Bateman 2-2 2b r bb-2 sb, Will Safford 1-2 r rbi sf sb, Will Hodo 0-3 r bb-2, N Terrell 0-0 r, G Tarlow 0-3 rbi sf, Dalton Pearson 0-4 rbi

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Bismarck: Austin Luther V 5-3-2-2-3-7, Jack Payne 0.2-1-3-3-3-0, Adolfo Iturralde 3.1-2-0-0-0-6, Justin Goldstein (L, 3-4) 0.2-1-2-1-0-0 ... Willmar: Logan Samuels 2-1-1-1-1-3, Seth Miller 4-6-3-3-1-6, Michael Chevalier 1-0-0-0-0-3, Brian Baker (W, 1-0) 3-1-2-1-3-3