ROCHESTER- Minn. The MoonDogs walked four times with the bases loaded and went on to defeat the Rochester Honkers 5-4 Saturday night at Mayo Field in frot of an announced crowd of 1,531. The game took 3 hours, 53 minutes to complete and both teams combined to use eleven pitchers. The win for the MoonDogs combined with a loss by Eau Claire keeps them in contention to earn a home playoff game in round one on Monday.
The MoonDogs scored a run in the top of the first after Kyler Cuellar walked and eventually scored on a double by Ryan Kreidler. Then the Honkers tied it in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run to the right center field gap by Zach Zubia. It remained 1-1 until the Honkers broke the game open in the fourth, scoring three runs on three hits, also taking advantage of a throwing error. After a scoreless fifth, sixth, and seventh inning, the MoonDogs loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on three walks. Then Daniel Amaral, Jake Shepski, and Kyle Cuellar all walked to score three and tie the game at 4.
In the ninth, Rochester relief pitcher Garrett Cobb started with back to back strikeouts but then allowed a Kenton Crews double to left. Jake Ortega singled to put runners on second and third and Alvaro Rubalcaba walked to load the bases. The next hitter, Daniel Amaral walked to score Crews from third and the MoonDogs went into the bottom of the ninth up 5-4.
Naithan Dewsnap pitched a scoreless eighth to earn the win and Joey Gerber struck out the side in the ninth inning to earn his fourth save. Jacob Green pitched 0.2 innings and took the loss for the Honkers. Mankato left 15 runners on base while Rochester left aboard 13. Daniel Amaral extended his consecutive game on base streak to 42 straight games. The Honkers ended the night having walked 15. The MoonDogs 22-12 (43-28 overall) will play the Honkers 14-19 (30-38 overall) again Sunday afternoon at 1:05pm at Mayo Field in the regular season finale. The MoonDogs will then play in round one of the playoffs on Monday but it is yet to be determined if they will get to host the game dependent on Sunday's results in the North Division. The MoonDogs must win and the Express must lose in order for the MoonDogs to host round one.
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 180 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 website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
