Most teams can win games with good hitting or good pitching. Tonight, the MoonDogs had both, handily defeating the Bismarck Larks 11-1.For yet another night, the MoonDogs struck early, scoring three right away in the bottom of the first inning off Bismarck starter, Andy Lalonde, in his only inning of work. After Daniel Amaral stole two bases to put himself on third base, he came in on a Toby Hanson single. The MoonDogs added two more in the inning, thanks in part to an RBI single by Drew Fearing.
The Larks brought in reliever Connor HIlburn to face the MoonDogs, but that didn’t slow the home team down, scoring two runs in the second inning, and another two in the third, on hits by Hanson, Kyle Cuellar, Amaral, and Jake Ortega.
Once again, eight MoonDogs had hits, including five doubles. Hanson and Ortega each had three hits, while Amaral and Ryan Kreidler both had two. Amaral and Hanson drove in two runs apiece for the MoonDogs.
Meanwhile, on the other side, TJ Satterly was on his game as well, going five complete innings without giving up a hit. The only blemish for Satterly was a four-walk inning in the fourth, resulting in the lone Larks run. He finished his hitless outing with six strikeouts and six walks.
Reliever Cooper Powell entered the game in the sixth inning, and shut the Larks down the rest of the way to earn a rare four inning save. Powell surrendered the only two hits of the game for the Larks, but was able to strand both runners easily. He struck out four Larks in his impressive relief appearance.
With the win, the MoonDogs move above .500 to 17-16, while the Larks drop to 15-18. The two teams will face off again tomorrow night at 6:05 at Franklin Rogers Park.
##
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.
###
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.
