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Published On: July 9th, 2016

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Blake Stockert was named a North Division All-Star on Friday morning, and he pitched like an all-star on Friday night at Copeland Park in La Crosse.

Stockert (North Dakota State) had his best outing of the season, and he combined with two other Stingers pitchers on a four-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Loggers, stretching Willmar’s season-high winning streak to six games.

Stockert and Loggers’ starter Connor Wollersheim battled back and forth through the first five innings, and the game was scoreless going to the top of the sixth.

But Travis Wacker (Oklahoma State) promptly untied the game in the top of the sixth with a lead-off home run on the first pitch of the inning from Wollersheim to give the Stingers (21-18, 3-0 second half) the lead for good.

Willmar added three more runs in the sixth, as Danny Pardo (Montevallo) doubled later in the inning and Danny Mayer (Pacific) singled him home. A batter later, Eddie Estrada unloaded on a pitch for the second home run of the inning to make it 4-0.

In his final inning of work, Stockert had his best frame of the night, setting the side down in order with a pair of strikeouts.

The Willmar bullpen had just as good of a finish to the night. Kiko Garcia (Pepperdine) struck out four of the six batters he faced with two perfect innings of relief. Pearson McMahan (St. John’s River State) then pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the third shutout of the season for Willmar.

Despite just six hits in the game, the Stingers offense scored six times, including two more runs in the seventh with a pair of bases-loaded walks.

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Blake Stockert. 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 Stingers will go for their third straight series sweep on Saturday night with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch against the Loggers at Copeland Park.

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.