Mankato, Minn. – The Mankato MoonDogs held on to beat the Brainerd Lakes Lunkers 2-1 on Sunday, June 12th. It was a dogfight between the pitching staffs of both teams in the 14 inning, four hour marathon of a baseball game.

MoonDog Logan Taylor (Northeast Texas) continued his early season success on the hill for the MoonDogs. Taylor pitched six innings, giving up three hits and striking out four Lunker batters. Taylor has a 0.60 era this season.

For the Lunkers, Aaron Griffin (Loyola-Marymount) pitched a gem of a game, carrying a perfect game into the bottom of the seventh inning before a Matt Reida (Kentucky) single ruined the perfect game bid for Griffin.

The MoonDogs struck first blood on a Scott Sommerfeld (Missouri) single to rightfield scoring Shaun Cooper (Utah) from second base. Cooper was able to advance to second thanks to an error by Lunker leftfielder Steven Brault (Regis). It seemed that the Blair Moore (San Diego St.) line drive should have been a routine play for Brault, but the glaring sun in leftfield may have played a factor in the error. The Lunkers responded right away in the top of the eighth with a run of their own to tie the game.

Nick Goody (LSU) came in the game in the eighth inning to relieve Jordan Remer (San Francisco) and performed admirably. Goody completely shut down the Lunkers. He struck out seven Lunker batters in three innings of work, a season high for him. Neither team was able to score in the ninth inning, and the game headed into extra innings.

Patrick Goelz (Bethune-Cookman) was another key reliever for the MoonDogs. Goelz made his first appearance of the season for the MoonDogs and pulled out the win in extra innings.

Finally, in the bottom of the 14th inning, Rudy Weiser (Emporia St.) came to the plate. Weiser worked the count and finally found his pitch for the walk-off base hit as he lined one down the first base line and drove in Scott Sommerfeld for the game winning run. Sommerfeld drove in the game tying run in the seventh inning and scored the game winning run on Weiser’s single. The MoonDogs are now a half a game ahead of the Lunkers for first place in the North Division as both teams head into the rubber match Monday night with the first pitch coming at 7:05pm.

Monday is Bark in the Park Night presented by BENCHES & 105.5 The River. Any fan that brings their dog to the game will get in free.