\n\tWILLMAR, Minn.—With a playoff berth already in hand, the Stingers came into play Sunday at Bill Taunton Stadium trying to secure home field advantage for the first round of the Northwoods League playoffs. Behind clutch pitching, Willmar knocked off Waterloo, 5-1, for the eighth time in eight games this season to prevent the Bucks from making the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe game started as a pitching duel between starters Ben Gullo and Aaron Myers for the Stingers and Bucks, respectively. But despite walking six over the course of four-plus innings, Gullo was the one who fared better and tight roped out of danger on several occasions to pitch four scoreless innings. Gullo loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the fourth inning but then got a double play that gave the Stingers momentum, marking a turning point in the game. A groundball two batters later got Gullo and the Stingers out of the inning unscathed.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Willmar offense took advantage of the huge opportunity and came back in the bottom of the fourth inning to tally two runs, which proved to be the game winners. Sean Beesley reached base on a dropped third strike, stole second and scored on Brian Pruett's double to center field to give Willmar a 1-0 lead. Reagan Fowler then reached on a single and Nick Rivera drove in the game-winner with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter being staked to the lead, Gullo and Joe Zorn combined to tip-toe out of danger again in the fifth inning. Gullo loaded the bases without recording an out and Zorn came out of the bullpen in a big spot. But, Zorn struck out the first two batters he saw and then got a groundout to first base to give the Stingers another big boost of momentum, from which they'd never look back.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWillmar tacked on two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh for insurance and Zorn, Brady Anderson and Brantley Claunch combined to shut down the Bucks the rest of the way.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Stingers open the playoffs tomorrow at Mankato at 7:05 p.m. and will be back home Tuesday and Wednesday, if necessary, against the MoonDogs. For fans who want to travel to Mankato tomorrow to see the Stingers in action, tickets for the Stinger Nation fan bus are just $15. Email ryan@willmarstingers.com if you're interested in a spot on the bus.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 2014 season is presented by Charter. For more coverage of the Stingers visit www.wctrib.com.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t![](\"http:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/c4ed7a8c133462f6e5ba62308\/images\/d3314aba-ec84-437c-9d67-776c7bb3b820.jpg\")
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WILLMAR, Minn.—With a playoff berth already in hand, the Stingers came into play Sunday at Bill Taunton Stadium trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,33,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-categories","category-team-news","category-update-ticker-all-categories"],"yoast_head":"\n