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WATERLOO, Iowa — For John Klein, it was by far his best performance of the young Northwoods League season.
The strapping right-hander from Brooklyn Park and Iowa Central Community College went eight excellent innings Friday night. It helped the Willmar Stingers to a 5-1 victory over the Waterloo Bucks before 722 fans at Riverfront Stadium.
Klein, 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, struck out seven and walked two, allowing one earned run. The victory improved his record to 1-2 with the Stingers. It also lowered his earned-run average to 3.60 in 15 innings this summer.
Klein was aided by 14 Willmar hits. Leading the way were Brett Bateman and Drey Dirksen.
Bateman, a center fielder and lead-off man from the University of Minnesota, went 3-for-5 with a run scored. Dirksen, a Willmar High School graduate and Augustana University player, was 3-for-5 with a run and three RBIs.
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Dirksen continues to be on a tear. He is batting .500 (16 of 32) with 12 runs, three doubles, two homers and nine RBI. He has also walked eight times and has a .600 on-base percentage and a .781 slugging percentage, good for 1.381 OPS.
The teams conclude their two-game series at 6:35 p.m. Saturday in Waterloo. Willmar then continues its road trip with a game at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at league-leading St. Cloud.
Willmar 5, Waterloo 1
Willmar 100 010 300-5 14 0
Waterloo 001 000 000-1 6 3
Hitting - Willmar: Brett Bateman 3-5 r, Joey Walls 1-4 r 2b, Drey Dirksen 3-5 r rbi-3, Sam Daly 1-5, Aidan Byrne 2-4 rbi, Will Busch 0-3 bb rbi, Nick Terrell 1-4, J.T. Navyac 1-4 r 2b, Kyle Payne 2-4 r … Waterloo: Kyle Huckstorf 2-3 r hr rbi hbp, Colin Kasperbauer 0-3 bb, Ryan Guardino 1-4, Alec Patino 0-2 bb, Jalen Martinez 1-3, Raphael Pelletier 1-3
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) - Willmar: John Klein (W, 1-2) 8-5-1-1-2-7, Tucker Novotny 1-1-0-0-0-1 … Waterloo: Dylan Gotto (L, 0-1) 6.1-10-4-4-0-4, Anthony Pron 0.2-1-1-1-1-0, Grant Hubka 2-3-0-0-1-2
