WATERLOO- Iowa Ethan Valdez picked up his fourth home run of the summer and the Mankato MoonDogs scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth to beat the Waterloo Bucks 6-4 at Riverfront Stadium Tuesday night. Joey Gerber earned the win for Mankato, pitching a scoreless eighth Naithan Dewsnap picked up the save in the ninth, facing four hitters.
The MoonDogs led the game 3-1 before the Bucks score 3 runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up 4-3, thanks to RBI doubles by Dalton Hurd and Jay Schuyler off of MoonDogs starting pitcher Collin Floyd. It remained a one run game until the seventh, when Ethan Valdez crushed a one out solo home run over the fence in left center field to tie things up at 4. In the top of the ninth, Toby Hanson got on base with a one out single and Zac Wiley followed with a double to put runners on second and third. The Bucks intentionally walked Wells Davis to load the bases for Ryan Kriedler, who was promptly hit by the first pitch thrown by Brandon Downey.
Drew Fearing grounded out to first base, bringing in Wiley from third to give the MoonDogs their a two run lead. Then Dewsnap struck out one in the ninth and the only runner to reach in the inning was Dalton Hurd on a ground ball error at third base by Valdez. The MoonDogs are now on their longest winning streak of the season at three games and have a chance to make it four in a row tomorrow morning when they face the Bucks again at 11:00am at Riverfront Stadium. The win moves the MoonDogs up to 4th place in the north division, five games behind Waterloo for first place. Attendance Tuesday night was 853. Duration: 2:59.
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The Mankato MoonDogs are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit [www.mankatomoondogs.com]or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the MoonDogs as your favorite team.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC).
All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
