ROCKFORD, Ill. — Pearson McMahan was making just his third start of the season on Sunday against Rockford, but that didn't stop him from turning in one of the best pitching performances in Stingers history. 

McMahan (St. John's River State) no-hit the Rivets through eight innings and Anthony Garza (Missouri S&T) finished off the game by retiring the side in order in the ninth, as the Stingers swept the Rivets with a 6-0 win at Rivets Stadium. 

McMahan's final line was eventually changed to include one hit, but that didn't take away from his dominating performance. The lone hit was a ground ball that deflected off of McMahan's glove and allowed the lead-off hitter Neal Tyrell to reach to start the first inning. From there, no one came close to getting another hit off of McMahan in the Stingers' sixth shutout of the season. 

Willmar got run support for McMahan before he even threw a pitch, scoring a run in the top of the first inning that was the eventual game-winning run. Danny Pardo (Montevallo) singled with one out in the first and then stole second and third to move into scoring position. Justin Toerner (Cal State Northridge) then doubled Pardo home to give the Stingers the lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

The Stingers added an insurance run for McMahan in the third inning thanks to some more two-out offense. With the bases empty, Greg Lambert (Southern Illinois) drew a two-out walk to start the rally. Toerner singled right after, and Danny Mayer (Pacific) followed with a single of his own to make it 2-0. 

Despite walking nine in the game, McMahan had his best pitches to get out of jams when he needed to. In his final four innings, McMahan stranded eight on base, using a strikeout in the fifth to leave two aboard and finishing off his night with a weak ground out in the eighth to strand two more. He finished the night with six strikeouts. 

Willmar added plenty of insurance in the ninth inning thanks to four more two-out runs. Pardo jump-started the rally by reaching on an infield single with two outs. The Stingers then had four straight reach on singles after that, including RBI singles by Toerner, Mayer and Eddie Estrada (Minnesota). Mayer scored on a wild pitch for the final run of the four-run inning. 

The two runs in the game gave Pardo five in the series and 69 for the year, a new Stingers single-season record that surpassed the 68 runs Forrestt Allday scored in 2012. 

Toerner led the Stingers at the plate, going 4-for-5 with two RBIs. He had eight hits and and seven RBIs in the two-game series. 

Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Pearson McMahan. 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 now travel to Madison for a two-game set with the Mallards that starts on Monday at 7:05 p.m. 

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.