WILLMAR, Minn.—The Stingers have had the key ingredients working against Waterloo so far this season and success was again in the cards Saturday evening. Behind another great start from Andrew Towns and three shutout innings from Will Lydon in relief, Willmar topped the Bucks for the seventh time in seven games this season, 4-2 at Bill Taunton Stadium.

In his 11th start of the year, Towns had unfortunate luck to begin the game, as the leadoff batter Pat MacKenzie reached first on an error. MacKenzie eventually came around to score with two singles in the inning, the latter by Kevin Kaczmarski to give the Bucks a 1-0 lead.

However, after the first inning on the mound, Towns was air tight and allowed just three more hits in his final five innings, one of which was a home run to give the Bucks a 2-1 lead after the top of the fourth.

The Stingers offense, meanwhile, was coming off back-to-back 11-run games, and although not nearly as powerful Saturday, Willmar scraped by enough runs to back up the pitching staff. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth, the Stingers manufactured a run with a leadoff walk by Jack Ross proving to be the game-tying tally. Brian Pruett followed with his second double in as many at bats and drove in his second run of the game with a line shot into the left field corner.

An inning later in the fifth, the Stingers (45-26 overall, 23-18 second half) tallied the game-winning run with the help of a Bucks' defensive miscue. Reagan Fowler reached first base with one out after third baseman David Kerian sailed a throw to first that allowed Fowler to scamper to second. Nick Rivera followed with a booming double to give the Stingers the lead for good.

Towns and Lydon combined to shut down the Waterloo bats the rest of the way, and after Towns left in the sixth, Lydon pitched three scoreless, allowing just a single base runner on a walk and earning his first save of the year.

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 Andrew Towns. 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.