Mike Kraft/MDN Minot’s Taylor Chillingworth swings at a pitch during a game against the Madison Night Mares on Monday at Corbett Field.

Through the first five innings, the Minot Honeybees had a response for whatever the Madison Night Mares did offensively.

They didn’t have quite enough of an answer to overcome Madison’s sixth inning, though they did make it interesting.

The Night Mares (7-3) hit a pair of home runs and plated seven runs in the sixth inning and held off a late rally to defeat the Honeybees 10-9 on Monday at Corbett Field in the first game of a three-game series. Ella Stephenson put the Night Mares in front for good with a 3-run home run to left field and Addison Blomberg followed later in the inning with a 2-run shot to the same spot. Madison brought 10 batters to the plate in the inning.

The Honeybees (7-5) entered the sixth inning protecting a 5-3 lead, only to see that evaporate with two big swings. Madison put runners on the corners after a pair of walks and Danielle Lucy scored Trinity Kennemer on a sacrifice fly to left field to cut Minot’s lead down to one. Emma Kavanagh singled to once again put runners on the corners and Stephenson brought everyone around to score on an 0-1 pitch.

“I was just looking to drive the ball, trying to find something I could hit and put a good swing on,” Stephenson said. “I ended up fouling off one pretty hard and then she threw a change-up down the middle and I just took advantage of it.”

Madison wasn’t done. Luciana Moreno and Ally Prasnjak both singled and Moreno scored off a two-base throwing error – Minot’s fourth of the game – before Blomberg cleared the fences to complete the run output for the inning.

“We just finally made adjustments,” Madison coach Lexi Godwin said. “These girls are good enough and smart enough to be able to make adjustments after seeing a pitcher one time and they just finally did that.”

Blomberg’s home run ended Minot starting pitcher Ashleigh Heiderscheit’s night after 5 2/3 innings and 132 pitches. With a current lack of depth in the pitching department, Honeybees coach Craig Montvidas stuck with his starting pitcher for as long as he could.

“Our pitcher ran out of gas and we don’t really have depth in the pitching right now,” Montvidas said. “One of our pitchers had to go home for a funeral and the younger pitcher came in and did an excellent job. It’s better one pitch too early than one pitch too late, so it was just a combination of a few things. You also have the rule in the league that they can only throw 150 pitches and she was closing in on that and then you’re thinking an inning ahead and it was a difficult game to coach as well based on all those things and moving parts. We’re missing players. No excuses. We did the best we could. I’m happy with the way we came back in the last inning, but we’re still making too many mistakes defensively.”

With two at-bats left to make up the deficit, the Honeybees nearly pulled off the improbable comeback. They got a little help from a two-out miscue by the Night Mares that allowed two runs to score. Minot’s Virginia Mambelli hit a harmless fly ball to left fielder Ava Carroll, but the ball bounced off her glove, allowing two runs to come into score and cut Madison’s lead to 10-7. The Honeybees nearly plated another run, but Mambelli was thrown out at the plate from a throw by center fielder Danielle Lucey following a single off the bat of Shayna Myshrall.

“Walks and errors have been our problem all year long,” Godwin said. “We have lost all of our (own) games. I don’t think a single team has beaten us all season. That’s still something we’re trying to work through is errors.”

The Honeybees seemed destined to complete the comeback in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs after two walks and a hit by pitch. A fielder’s choice at second allowed one run to score and put runners on the corners with one out. Makenna Alexander grounded out to second, but scored Taylor Chillingworth. But with the tying run on second, Madison pitcher Tayler Baker was able to go the distance, getting Carly Cummings to ground out to shortstop to end the game and preserve the victory for the Night Mares.

“I don’t think we ever lose a game, we just run out of innings,” Montvidas said. “I thought we were going to pull a rabbit out of our hat in that last inning, but we just came up short.”

The Night Mares were able to overcome a pair of costly miscues that led to six of Minot’s first seven runs. Minot surrendered a pair of runs in the top of the first inning, but quickly turned the game around with four runs of its own after getting second life following a wild pitch on what would have been a strike out for the final out of the frame. Taylor Chillingworth struck out with the bases loaded and two outs, but the ball went all the way to the backstop, allowing Carly Cummings to score from third and keep the inning alive for the Honeybees.

Minot took advantage, scoring three more runs. Heiderscheit connected on a 2-run single to center and Olivia Lenzen added an RBI single of her own to give the Honeybees a 4-2 lead after the first inning.

Heiderscheit suffered her first loss of the season, allowing 10 runs on 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings. Cienna Clemens pitched the final 1 1/3 innings, keeping Madison off the scoreboard and allowing just two hits.

Minot and Madison play again on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. at Corbett Field.