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Published On: July 11th, 2017

LACROSSE-Wisc. David Villar hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game at 8. Then Kenny Taylor hit a walk off single in the tenth to give the Loggers the 9-8 victory over the MoonDogs on Monday night at Copeland Park in front of a crowd of 2,482. In addition, Villar put up three home runs and eight runs batted in against Mankato pitching in the two game series. 

 

The game began as a pitcher's duel between LaCrosse starter Garrett Christman and Mankato starter Cooper Powell and no runs were scored for either team before the seventh inning. Then with two outs, Logan Busch hit a towering solo home run to right field to give the MoonDogs a 1-0 lead. In the eighth, Alvaro Rubalcaba, Daniel Amaral, and Ryan Kreidler all drew walks and two runs were scored on a single to right by Toby Hanson, bringing the lead to 3-0. Lacrosse came back in their half of the eighth scoring three on a home run by Luke Rasmussen. 

 

The offense continued to come from both teams in the ninth inning. First it was the MoonDogs scoring five runs to take the lead 8-3, begininning with a lead-off walk issued to Logan Busch, followed by back-to-back singles by Kenton Crews and Kyle Cuellar. Then Alvaro Rubalcaba singled and so did Daniel Amaral to load the bases again. Toby Hanson drew a walk to bring in another run.

 

The Loggers came storming back again the bottom of the ninth. Jorge Gutirrez drew a lead-off walk. Ryan Mantle singled and Cameron Blake walked to load the bases. Next, after Kenny Taylor struck out, Mitchell Morimoto walked to put the Loggers behind 8-4. Then David Villar hit a grand slam to tie the game.

 

In the tenth inning, the MoonDogs went down in order and the Loggers followed with a lead-off base hit by Jeremy Ydens, who was pinch hitting for Gutierrez. Then Ryan Mantle grounded out 1-3 and the MoonDogs intentionally walked Cameron Blake. Kenny Taylor, who struck out with the bases loaded in the ninth had a chance at redemption and delivered with a base hit down the left field line, bringing in the winning run.

 

Charlie Fletcher got the win in relief for LaCrosse, pitching the ninth and tenth innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 3 hits, walking 1 and striking out 3. Austin Hansen took the loss for Mankato, the tenth inning and allowing one run to score. The MoonDogs used five pitchers in the game while LaCrosse used four. Cooper Powell did well in his first start of the summer, going 7.0 innings and allowing zero runs on 7 hits, walking 0 and striking out 5. Garrett Christman for LaCrosse went 7.1 innings, giving up 1 earned run on 5 hits, walking 1 and striking out 8.

 

The MoonDogs 3-3 (23-19 overall) will play St. Cloud at 7:05pm next on Tuesday night to end a four game road trip, before returning for a five game homestand leading into the All-Star break. The Loggers improved to 3-3 (17-23 overall).

 

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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.