Madison, Wisc. — Willmar's pitching staff has started the season strong, and Bradley Bailey added to that strong start with a gem Saturday night. 

In his second outing of the season, Bailey allowed just one hit as he gave the Stingers a strong foundation in what ended up a 4-0 Stingers win. 

Bailey faced trouble right away in the first inning, as he allowed two base runners with just one out in the inning. But as he did in tough spots throughout the night, Bailey came back with big pitches to get out of the jam in the first. He cruised along through his next two innings to set the stage for the Willmar offense in the fourth.

In the fourth the Stingers offense only recorded one hit but translated that into three runs, which was more than enough for Bailey and the Stingers' bullpen. Dan Motl led the inning off with a walk, Sean Beesley singled and Storm Wilson brought Motl in when he reached on an error. Beesley would end up scoring on a wild pitch and Wilson corssed home on an RBI groundout by Tyler Leffler. 

Bailey faced one more tight spot in the fourth, but danced his way out of danger to keep the Stingers on top by three. With two outs, the Mallards got a triple by Jonathon Quintana followed by a walk from Tony Butler. But after Butler stole second, Scott Tyler flew out to centerfield to end the threat. 

The Willmar offense tacked on one more in the sixth inning to give more of a cushion to Bailey and the bullpen. It was more than enough, as the pitching staff held strong for its first shutout of the season.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Bradley Bailey. 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.

The 2015 season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.