Northwoods League: Waterloo Bucks edge Willmar Stingers, 4-3
Aug. 5—WATERLOO, Iowa. — The Willmar Stingers were back in action after a day off and they were reminded Wednesday of why the Waterloo Bucks won the Northwoods League's Great Plains East Division first-half title.
Waterloo beat Willmar 4-3 before 701 fans at Riverfront Stadium.
The Bucks (13-12 second half, 36-23 overall) also lead the Great Plains East in the second half. Willmar (12-12 second half, 28-32 overall) is in third place in the Great Plains West, seven games behind St. Cloud (20-6, 44-14) which also won the first-half title. The Rox have the best overall record in the 22-team league.
Wednesday, Waterloo got a solid pitching performance from starter Cameron Hagen and excellent relief pitching from three pitchers.
Hagen, a right-hander from the University of Hawaii, went six innings, allowing five hits and one earned run, striking out three and walking three. He improved his record to 3-1 and has a 3.52 earned-run average in 30 2/3 innings. Three Bucks came in after him and each threw a scoreless inning. Curren Larson, a right-hander from Saddleback Community College in California, earned his second save by pitching the ninth, striking out one and walking one with no hits.
Grant Kerry led the Stingers offensively. The first baseman from Wynyard, England, and Northwest Nazarene University of Idaho went 2-for-5 with a run and a double. He's batting .301 (37 of 123) with three home runs and 29 RBI in 32 games with Willmar.
Willmar returns home to face the St. Cloud Rox at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Bill Taunton Stadium.
Waterloo 4, Willmar 3
Willmar 011 010 000-3 5 0
Waterloo 020 011 000-4 4 4
Hitting — Willmar: Carter Howell 0-5 rbi, Jakob Newton 1-4 bb, Grant Kerry 2-5 r 2b, Derek Hackman 1-3 r 2b bb-2, Drey Dirksen 1-3 r rbi sf, Jorge Lucero 1-4, Asa Awbrey 0-1 bb-2 sac, Matthew Enck 0-2 sac ... Waterloo: Chris Seng 1-1 r bb-3 rbi sb-2, Jalen Smith 0-2 rbi hbp sf sb, Josh Kasevich 1-3 2b rbi bb, Mike Campagna 1-3 r bb, Tristan Gomes 0-2 r bb-2, Luke Fennelly 1-4 r, Dalton Chandler 0-2 bb
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Willmar: Duke Coborn 2-2-2-2-3-1, Jack Blesch (L, 2-1) 3-2-2-2-2-0, Jeremy Klick 2-0-0-0-2-1, Kenten Egbert 1-0-0-0-1-0 ... Waterloo: Cameron Hagan (W, 3-1) 6-5-3-1-3-3, Keaton Parker 1-1-0-0-0-1, Ben Beutel 1-0-0-0-1-2, Curren Larson (Sv, 2) 1-0-0-0-1-1
