Waterloo, Iowa — The comeback kids are back out to play. 

For the second straight game the Stingers came back from an early deficit to win, scoring six runs between the seventh and eighth innings to drop Waterloo 6-3 on Thursday night at Riverfront Stadium. 

On the heels of the three-day Northwoods League All-Star break, it took the Stingers' offense a while to come around. But a late outpouring of run support for Willmar starter Zach Strecker was enough to get Strecker his fifth win of the year and his third straight. Strecker allowed two early runs in the first inning, but he shut down the Bucks (28-27, 10-9 second half) the rest of the way. After he surrendered three hits in the first two innings, Strecker settled down and scattered six hits over his final six innings of work and stranded five runners total on base. 

Strecker's longest outing of the season, and one of his best, gave the Stingers (35-18, 12-7) plenty of time to find their groove at the plate. Willmar reached the Waterloo bullpen in the seventh, and that's when the offense went to work. The first three batters in the seventh all reached against Bucks' reliever Doug Hayes, a rally started by Storm Wilson who got hit by a pitch. Troy Dixon's singled two batters later, following a Lucas Tancas single, to put the Stingers on the board. After a sacrifice bunt, Brian Pruett singled up the middle to tie the score, and Dan Motl had an RBI groundout to give the Stingers the lead, 3-2. 

Strecker had a scoreless seventh, and the offense came right back with three more runs to pad the lead. This time the first four batters of the inning reached, as Ky Parrott came around on a throwing error to score the first run when Wilson tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt. Reagan Fowler scored on a Tancas single, while Wilson came around on a double play ball to bring the lead to four. 

Strecker allowed a run in the eighth, but that was all the Bucks would get back. He finished with a season-high five strikeouts and did not walk a single batter. Brady Anderson then closed out his 13th straight game with a perfect ninth to earn his 33rd career save, setting the new Northwoods career saves record. 

The Stingers finish the two-game road series with Waterloo tomorrow night with a 7:05 p.m. start. 

The 2015 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 Troy Dixon. 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.