Willmar, MN- – The Mankato MoonDogs had their three game winning streak snapped Thursday night, losing to the Willmar Stingers 3-1 at Bill Taunton Stadium.
Brock Dykxhoorn (West Virginia) took the loss for Mankato, allowing three runs on six hits over six innings, striking out five Willmar batter while walking two. Dykxhoorn avoided the big inning on several occasions, but gave up all three Stingers runs with two outs on the board.
Willmar plated home their first run in the bottom of the second after Tyler Leffler reached base on a two-out walk, scoring a batter later on a Danny Brennan RBI double. Dykxhoorn was stung again in the bottom of the third, with Alec Sole scoring on a Max Kuhn RBI single. The Stingers got an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning, on a two-out, solo home run (2) off the bat of Stingers first baseman Marc Flores, extending the Willmar lead to 3-1.
Mankato made it a 2-1 game in the top of the fifth after Alex Polston (Seminole State) walked to lead off the inning. Polston reached third after advancing on a passed ball and a balk, and later scored on a Krysthian Leal (Maryland) RBI sac-fly. The MoonDogs had plenty of chances offensively Thursday night, but never quite got the bats going. In all, the ‘Dogs left seven men on base over nine innings, five of those seven were stranded at third. Zach Zehner (Cal-Poly) led the team offensively, going 3-for-4 with a double and a pair of singles, bumping his season batting average up to .365.
Chris Kubitz (St. Cloud State) improved to 2-1 on the year, giving up just the one run on three hits, while striking out six MoonDogs batters over 5.2 innings. Bret Dahlson picked up his second save of the summer, striking out two batters in a quick 1-2-3 ninth inning.
The MoonDogs are back home Friday June 14th taking on the Alexandria Blue Anchors who are managed by world series champion, and former Minnesota Twin Al Newman. Friday night’s game is MAYBA/MAGFA Night presented by Hot 96.7. All kids wearing their MAYBA or MAGFA jerseys get in free with a paid adult.
Season and single game tickets are on sale at the MoonDogs office located at 1221 Caledonia Street in Mankato. For more information visit the teams website at www.mankatomoondogs.com or call the office a 507-625-7047.