STURGIS, S.D. – The Sturgis Titans opened up their home tournament with a 9-6 loss to the Billings Expos Friday night.
The Expos opened up the game with a 1-0 lead as Cooper Hanson’s single brought home Cooper Stahlman.
In the second inning, the Expos added 3 more as Ethan Osness doubled to bring home Alex Good, Stahlman tripled to bring home Osness and Thomas Hubbard singled to bring home Stahlman.
Billings would then add one run in the third and four more in the fourth. In the fourth, Hubbard doubled to bring home Stahlman and Hunter Miller had a single that produced two runs for the Expos.
Sturgis fought back, however, scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the fifth. Ridge Inhofer tripled to bring home R.J. Andrzejewski, David Anderson singled to bring home Inhofer and a sacrifice grounder by Thor Sundstrom brought in David Anderson.
Sturgis added another run in the sixth and 2 in the seventh, but could get no closer.
Dustin Alan got the pitching start for Sturgis, and struck out two before being replaced by Hunter Janzen, who struck out 5.
Walter Fink got the pitching win for Billings, striking out five.
Offensively, Stahlman finished with 3 hits and an R.B.I. to help lead Billings. Hubbard added 2 hits and 2 R.B.I.
Sturgis was led by R.J.’s 3 hits.
Earlier in the evening, Spearfish and Gillette opened up the Sturgis Rally Baseball Tournament with Spearfish getting the 12-1 win.
The tourney continues Saturday with the following games:
Billings vs Miles City at 10:00 a.m.
Spearfish vs Casper at 12:30 p.m.
Gillette vs loser of Miles City vs Billings at 3:00 p.m.
Sturgis vs loser of Spearfish vs Casper at 5:30 p.m.
