ROCHESTER, Minn. — Early offense has paved the way for success for the Willmar Stingers this summer, and that was the case on Saturday night in a 8-3 win over the Rochester Honkers at Mayo Field. 

Willmar (8-10) scored five runs over the first two innings and got five solid inning from starter Ty Tice, as the Stingers never led by less than four after the second inning. 

Willmar took advantage of the error in the first inning and needed just one hit to plate three runs. Danny Pardo and Greg Lambert led off the game with back-to-back walks, and Justin Toerner got hit by a pitch to load the bases with no one out. Kole Cottam (Kentucky) grounded out to score Pardo and give the Stingers the lead for good. Two batters later Luke Becker reached on a error to score a second run and keep the inning alive, while Brandon Perez singled home the third run of the inning. 

Tice allowed a run in the bottom of the first, but settled down after that and struck out the final three batters of the ending to get out of a jam. He finished with six strikeouts in five innings of work, allowing three total runs. 

The Stingers offense had more run support for Tice after he surrender the run in the first, as Lambert crushed his fourth home run of the year in the second inning, a two-run shot to left to make it 5-1. 

Willmar went on to add a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. 

The bullpen for the Stingers fared well in relief of Tice, as Patrick Martin (Hawaii) threw three scoreless innings. Pearson McMahan pitched a scoreless ninth in his first outing of the summer, striking out the side. 

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Greg Lambert. 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 2016 Stingers season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.