WILLMAR, Minn.—After a tough loss to Alexandria earlier in the day, Willmar had a response on its home field Wednesday night in the final game of the season series. Trailing by one in the bottom of the ninth, the Stingers answered the call in their final at-bats for the first time this season and dropped the Blue Anchors 6-5.

Going into the bottom of the ninth Willmar (40-22 overall, 18-14 second half) had the bottom of the order due up at the plate, but the three came through in the clutch, recording two hits sandwiched around a walk to tie the score at five.

The first man in the inning Brett Barbier led off with a bloop single over the head of Alexandria first baseman Rickey Sanchez that had just enough steam to get into right field. Following two doubles earlier in the game, Max Ayoub came to the plate and worked the count full before watching ball four sail by upstairs. Then, with two on, Blue Anchors' pitcher Rob Mouton tried to pick off Barbier from second but his throw sailed into center field, allowing both runners to advance 90 feet. Frankie Rios followed with a bloop single of his own into right field, which set up second and third for Brian Pruett. On the first pitch he saw, Pruett dribbled a ball just fair inside the first base line that gave Ayoub plenty of time to score from third to win the game.

The Stingers got a great outing from TJ Whidby, who had his second longest start of the season. Although Whidby did allow the go-ahead run to score in the top of the eighth, he finished with a strikeout of Jeremy Hyde to give the Stingers a little momentum. The strikeout gave Whidby his most strikeouts in a game this season with six, and he finished his 7-2/3 innings yielding just seven hits while walking only one. Will Lydon finished the inning and then stranded runners on second and third in the top of the ninth to give the Stingers a boost of momentum going to the final at-bats.

The 2014 season is presented by Charter. For more coverage of the Stingers visit www.wctrib.com.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Max Ayoub. CDI is your local medical imaging provider. It’s your choice where you go for medical imaging, for MRI, CT, mammograms and pain injections, choose CDI. Visit online at myCDI.com/CentralMN.