St. Cloud, Minn. – The Mankato MoonDogs saw their season best win streak of seven games come to an end Wednesday night to the hands of the St. Cloud River Bats at Joe Faber Field, losing by a score of 5-3.

The River Bats came out swinging in the first inning, scoring three runs on the bottom half of the inning to put the MoonDogs in an early hole they couldn’t quite dig themselves out of, despite a few close attempts.

The MoonDogs out hit and out pitched the River Bats in the game. Alex Blackford (Arizona St.) was on the mound for the ‘Dogs and suffered the lose despite pitching a great game. He only gave up four hits, but three of those hits resulted in St. Cloud triples that allowed the ‘Bats to easily score with runners in scoring position nearly every time they came to the plate.

Despite only scoring three runs the MoonDogs offense still played well. The offense out-hit St. Cloud with ten hits, and three of those hits were doubles for the ‘Dogs. The downfall were the eight runners that were left of base due to some timely outs by St. Cloud. Sam Lind (Vanderbilt) and Nick Judkins (Creighton) each led the MoonDogs offense by tallying two hits apiece. Judkins also had a double and an RBI on the day and raised his batting average to .309.

The MoonDogs return home tomorrow for a five game homestand starting with a two game series against the Rochester Honkers. Thursday is MoonDogs Baseball Card Nigth presented by SportsPix and Z99. The first 500 kids will receive a free pack of MoonDogs baseball trading cards.