St. Cloud, Minn. — Willmar’s bullpen has had an uneventful start to the season.

With strong starting pitching, the bullpen has been used sparingly, and that continued Sunday afternoon. Stingers’ starter Zach Strecker turned in another quality start, going six strong innings, and the offense jumped on several early opportunities in a 6-1 win over St. Cloud.

After the Stingers (10-8) tallied a run right away in the top of the first, Strecker faced the toughest spot of the afternoon in the bottom of the same inning. Strecker walked two of the first three batters he faced, and found himself in a first and second jam with just one out in the inning. But Strecker settled down, got a fielder’s choice for the second out of the frame and then struck out Austin Athmann to end the threat and keep Willmar ahead with the momentum.

Following the scoring chance for the Rox (10-8), Strecker went into cruise control and retired 10 of the next 11 men he faced.

The Stingers offense then went to work for its starter and put five runs on the board between the fourth and fifth innings. Ky Parrott led the rally in the fourth inning with a one-out single, and a double by Justin Thaxton and a single by Danny Palmiscno made it 2-0 in the Stingers’ favor. Brian Pruett then followed with an RBI fielder’s choice to bring the lead to three.

In the fifth, the Stingers scored three more times with some help from the Rox. Storm Wilson, Tyler Leffler and Parrott had the three hits in the frame, and Parrott made it a 2-for-4 afternoon with his RBI single to make it a 4-0 advantage. Rox pitcher Andrew Sykes then delivered two straight wild pitches to score Leffler and Troy Dixon for the fifth and six runs.

After that Strecker continued to roll, as he scattered three total hits while allowing just one run, striking out five during his six innings.

Tyler Heitmann was the only bullpen arm needed, and he finished the game strong with his three scoreless innings. The Stingers have now won eight of their 10 games by four or more runs.

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

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Ky Parrott. 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 Willmar Stingers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (TB). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website.  For more information, visit www.willmarstingers.com.