WILLMAR, Minn. – The Bucks battled hard, but sometimes the battle is just a bit too much.

That was the case for the Waterloo Bucks (1-4, 10-29) on Tuesday night when they had to take on Steven Brooks, the starting pitcher for the Willmar Stingers (5-2, 26-15). Brooks tossed eight shutout innings and was allowed to start the ninth before being pulled after allowing a leadoff walk to pinch-hitter Brodie Marino.

Overall, it was a game in which the Bucks were able to load the bases twice, but could never cash in, in either the sixth or ninth innings as they fell to the Stingers on the road, 4-0.

The loss came on a night when the Bucks’ pitching staff showed out. Cameron Hagan, who struggled in his previous few starts settled in after allowing a couple of walks to keep Willmar off the scoreboard in the first. However, two runs would cross an inning later.

Harrison Durow pitched three shutout innings, striking out four; immediately followed by Blake Benson throwing two scoreless striking out three himself. In fact, it wasn’t until the bottom of the eighth when the Stingers would score again. It would come off a four-walk inning in a shaky relief appearance for Aaron Treloar.

In the ninth, after the Marino walk, John Bezdicek was called upon to slam the door. After allowing back-to-back base hits, raising the heart rate of those at Bill Taunton Stadium, he would strike out Ryan Grabosch to end the ballgame. All three outs in the Bucks’ ninth came off Bezdicek strikeouts.

With the victory, the Stingers have now won five in a row and will look to sweep the short two-game series tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. at Bill Taunton Stadium in Willmar. You can listen to the game, as well as all Buck road games at waterloobucks.com