Duluth, Minn. — Willmar is currently in the midst of its most grueling road stretch of the season with nine straight games away from home, but by the way the Stingers are playing, you wouldn't know it.
Willmar (16-9) continued its red hot road trip Sunday with its fourth consecutive win, the second such streak during the road trip, defeating Duluth 5-1 at Wade Stadium.
After kicking off the road trip with a win at St. Cloud, Stingers starter Zach Strecker (2-1) had another commanding performance, as he helped keep the Stingers in the game while it remained scoreless over the course of the first four innings. Strecker faced a jam right away in the first inning with runners on first and second and two outs, but responded by inducing a ground out to get out of the frame. He allowed just two more hits in his next four innings of work.
Before the Huskies (15-11) mounted another serious threat, the Willmar offense scored four times to give Strecker plenty of run support. All of those tallies by the Stingers came in a four-run outburst in the fifth inning, started by Lucas Tancas who reached on an error with one away in the inning. Tancas went all the way to third when his fly ball was muffed, and immediately came into score on Paul Funk's grounder one batter later. Funk reached first on the play and then went all the way to third when Dan Motl doubled to the gap in left. Funk scored on Storm Wilson's RBI single, Motl came in on a wild pitch, and Wilson stole two bases and also came in on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
From there, Strecker took over and masterfully worked out of a pair of jams to end his night. He escaped back-to-back bases loaded situations in both the sixth and seventh innings by getting a pair of double plays from his defense. Strecker did allow his only run of the game before the double play in the seventh inning, but that double play helped put the Huskies away for good. He finished his seven strong innings with four strikeouts.
Willmar has now won seven of its eight games on the road trip and has won nine of its last 11 overall to open up a 1.5 game lead in the North Division. The Stingers will try to sweep Duluth tomorrow night before coming back home Tuesday.
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 Storm Wilson. 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.
