Willmar, Minn. — When in doubt, give the ball to Will Lydon.
In his third start of the year, the Stingers right hander came up with another strong peformance to help the Stingers to a 5-1 victory over Rochester Tuesday night at Bill Taunton Stadium.
Lydon, who earned his third victory of the season, set the tone early and then shut the door on Rochester's scoring opportunities. He took the Honkers down in order in the first inning, but then ran into a jam in the second when he walked the bases loaded. But he wasn't fazed. Lydon got Sam Hall to pop out, and then got a double play to end the inning.
The rest of Lydon's six total innings went much the same way. He allowed two base runners on in each of the next three innings, but continued to tight rope danger. The only run the Stingers pitching staff allowed came in the fifth inning when the Honkers Miles Mastrobuoni scored on a throwing error, an unearned run charged to Lydon.
With Lydon's strong performance on the mound, the Stingers offense again did more than enough to back up its starter. Willmar came back in the bottom of the first after Lydon's quick start to get three runs. Four straight singles from the top of the order plated the first two runs, and then another came in on a double play ball later in the inning. The Stingers tacked on another run in the bottom of the second on Billy Quirke's RBI single for a more than comfortable lead for Lydon to work with.
Garrett Anderson, Dakota Belter and Ruger Rodriguez combined to one-hit the Honkers the rest of the way.
Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Will Lydon. 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 www.wctrib.com.
