Adam Papin/MDN Hot Tots pitcher Rawley Hector delivers a pitch early in last night’s game against the Wilmar Stingers.

After picking up a weekend split against the Rochester Honkers, the Hot Tots welcomed a much more formidable challenge to Corbett Field in the Willmar Stingers for a four-game set.

The two Northwoods League teams couldn’t be following more different paths so far this season. The Stingers came into Monday night’s game in first place and enjoying a league-best 15-3 record. On the other hand, the Hot Tots have the worst record in the league at 4-14, eleven games back of the Stingers.

So far, Minot has failed to complement solid pitching and hitting in the same game, something that shows in their record.

“Recently, on this road trip, we were pitching really well,” said Hot Tots head coach Mitch Gallagher. “And we didn’t come up with the big hits. Before that, we were really hitting well and just weren’t making the best pitches. Now that we’ve shown that we can do both, it’s just putting it together and I think we could do that pretty soon.”

The first meeting of the year between the two teams saw Minot blow an 8-1 lead before falling 11-8.

The Hot Tots must have learned from the experience. Down 7-0 in the seventh inning, Minot’s bats came alive, hitting three home runs to score nine for a two-run lead. Thomas Rollauer hit his first home run of the summer, driving in Gavin Bennet. Christian Perez added a three-run blast that scored Tristan Moore and Karson Evans. Ryan Recio went yard as well, scoring his second run of the inning. His blast brought in Damone Hale and Nice Pepe to make it 9-7.

The lead would be short-lived though, as Gabe Swansen answered with a two-run home run for the Stingers to tie the game at 9-9.

Moore wasn’t about to see Minot lose another heartbreaker though. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Moore stole home to put the Hot Tots ahead 10-9 and leave the Hot Tots three outs away from an improbable victory.

Nic Pepe did his part in the ninth, making a leaping grab to rob Willmar of a base hit for the first out before the Hot Tots closed out the win.

Willmar jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Sean Rimmer scored on an RBI single by Kasten Furr. Later in the inning, Hector balked with the bases loaded to score Zach Stroh for the Stingers’ other run.

They added three more runs in the fourth inning, as Jake Hjelle, Stroh and Stone Miyao all scored to make it 7-0 Willmar.

That’s where things stood before the Hot Tots rally.

The win improves the Hot Tots to 5-14 on the year and cuts their deficit in the standings to ten games back of the Stingers.

“I think we need to come away with a series win,” said Mitch Gallagher. “I think that looks really good and it gives our guys a little bit more confidence knowing that we can match up against anybody here.”

The Hot Tots and Stingers didn’t have much time to enjoy the victory last night, as they face off in a doubleheader today, with game one starting at 9:05 a.m. Game two won’t begin until 6:35 p.m.