WILLMAR, Minn.—Offense has been hard to come by for the Stingers at times this season, but that was not the case Wednesday night at Bill Taunton Stadium. Behind the best offensive game so far this season, Willmar used 22 hits to defeat Waterloo for the second straight night, 15-4.

All systems were go from the first batter to step into the box for the Stingers (26-11 overall, 5-3 second half), as Brian Pruett led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. Willmar went on to tally three runs in the inning, which came on a total of four hits. After Pruett got erased on a double play, Reagan Fowler walked, Nick Rivera singled and Casey Hughston got his first hit of the game, a single that drove in in Fowler. Jack Ross tripled down the right field line to bring in Rivera and Hughston, but the fireworks had just begun.

The Stingers came back for a second helping of three runs in the very next inning, all of which scored on Hutton Moyer's big fly, his second home run of the season. Waterloo (28-16, 4-5) struck for their first run of the game in the top of the third but single runs in the third and fifth innings for Willmar put the game well out of reach at 8-1. The inning in between the single runs in the fourth was actually the only time all night where the Stingers didn't tally a run.

For good measure, the Stingers had back-to-back three-run innings for the second time in the game in the sixth and seventh innings, five of the six runs coming with two outs, which was a recurring theme during the night. Willmar netted four more hits in the sixth inning to score the three runs as Max Ayoub and Pruett both had RBIs. Then in the seventh, Jack Ross went deep for his first salami of the year to make it a 13-4 lead. Ayoub doubled afterward and Rios singled him in to make it 14-4. 

The first home run of the season for Casey Hughston, and his fifth hit in the game to tie a Stingers record, was the final run of the game. Jack Ross went 3×5 on the night and finished a double shy of the cycle with four RBI, while Kurt Yinger picked up his second win of the year in seven strong innings on the mound where he gave up just six hits.

The 2014 season is presented by Charter. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune's website at www.wctrib.com.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging players of the game were Jack Ross and Casey Hughston. 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.