Thunder Bay, Ontario – The Mankato MoonDogs (2-4) continued their four game road trip north of the border Monday night, losing to the Thunder Bay Border Cats (3-3) by the final score of 3-2 in 12 innings at Port Arthur Stadium.
Second baseman Chase Simpson (Wichita State) got the ‘Dogs on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning, blasting a solo home run (2) over the right-field wall to take the early 1-0 lead. Simpson was the only MoonDog batter with a multi-hit night, finishing 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. Zach Zehner (Santa Barbara CC) continued his hot start in the 2013 season, going 1-for-2 at the plate with a run scored.
Rob Cerfolio (Yale) made his second start (0-1) of the summer, allowing two runs on four hits over six and two-third innings while striking out four. The Lefty took a no hit bid into the bottom of the 5th inning before allowing Thunder Bay’s Tyler Duplantis to reach base on a one out single. Duplantis would come around to score on a two out Cory Kay RBI single to tie the game up at 1-1. One inning later, Michael Foster smacked a leadoff double, and later scored on a Ryan Casillas RBI sac-fly to deep right field to give Thunder Bay a 2-1 lead.
Zehner was hit by a pitch to lead off the MoonDog’s half of the 7th inning, and would later come around to score on a Tim Lynch (Southern Miss) infield single and throwing error by Casillas to knot the game up at 2-2. Both teams had chances in the 8th and 9th innings, but held in check until Jason Vosler drove in Ty Stetson for the game winning in the bottom of the 10th inning on a two-out, bases loaded single.
MoonDogs relief pitcher Jesse Harbin (Arkansas Little Rock) suffered the loss (0-1), allowing one run on three hits while walking a pair of batters over one and two-third innings. Mike Nowak (Shasta CC) worked 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball, striking out two.
The ‘Dogs will be back on the field Tuesday morning, with first pitch scheduled for 1105am ET. Donovan Feenstra (University of the Cumberlands) will take the mound for Mankato in the final game of the four game road trip.
The MoonDogs return to Franklin Rogers Park on Wednesday June 5 against Rochester. Gates open at 6:05 p.m. with the first 500 fans receiving a commemorative Brandon Crawford poster sponsored by Sport PiX and AM 1230 The Fan Mankato. Season and single game tickets are on sale at the MoonDogs office located at 1221 Caledonia Street. For more information visit our website at mankatomoondogs.com or call the MoonDogs office at 507-625-7047.