MANKATO-Minn. The Mankato MoonDogs defeated the Eau Claire Express 11-10 on Sunday night in a game that featured solid hitting and not so solid pitching and fielding. Alvaro Rubalcaba led off the game with a solo home run to left field on the second pitch he saw and the MoonDogs held the lead the rest of the way. After the Express scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth, the biggest inning came off the bats of Mankato as they scored five in the top of inning five to go up 11-6.
The big inning started with an Ethan Valdez double, then a Jake Ortega single to put runners on the corners. CJ Shaeffer then singled to score Valdez and Kenton Crews singled to score Ortega. Later in the inning, Garrision Schwartz connected for a single, scoring two more runs for the MoonDogs and the inning continued after an error by Justin Evans at shortstop, eventually bringing the fifth inning total to five.
Eau Claire did not give up though, scoring runs in the sixth, seventh, and eight innings to get within a run at 11-10, but Austin Bollinger came in relief of Cooper Powell in the ninth, retiring the Express in order to pick up the save. Cooper Powell got the win for the MoonDogs, pitching 3 complete innings and allowing two earned runs on three hits. He walked zero and struck out two. Aaron Shortridge took the loss in relief for the Express. The MoonDogs will be back in action again at Carson Field tomorrow night with the first pitch scheduled for 6:35pm. They will then return home on Tuesday for a day-night doubleheader against the North Division leading St. Cloud Rox. The victory moved the MoonDogs' team record to (7-6). The Express dropped to (4-9). Time of the game: 3 hours, 40 minutes. Attendance: 758.
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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 170 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC).
All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
