The Willmar Stingers came to the Cedar Valley for the Waterloo Bucks home opener. The Stingers struck early with a pair of runs in the top of the first courtesy of a two-RBI single from Brooks Lee. However, Waterloo had more to say on the matter. The Bucks rattled off five unanswered runs to take a 5-2 lead into the fifth.

Willmar tacked on a run with a solo homerun to left from designated hitter Jayson Newman to narrow the deficit to 5-3, Waterloo. The Bucks exploded again by tacking on two runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh. Willmar only put six hits on the board, but Waterloo had 17, including multi-hit games by seven players.

Levi Usher led the way for Waterloo and drove home a game-high four runs with a double and a triple. Xane Washington went 3-for-5 with two runs driven in and a pair of runs scored. For Willmar, Griffen Cheney went 2-for-4 including a walk and a run scored. Jayson Newman had a solo homer to left and a walk. Will Christophersen picked up the win for Waterloo with three innings of one-hit baseball. Zach Toth took the loss for Willmar with a 1/3 of an inning pitched and four earned runs.

The Bucks are back in action against Willmar tomorrow night at 6:35 at Cost Cutters Field at Riverfront Stadium. Tickets can be found online.