THUNDER BAY- Ontario. The MoonDogs scored runs in 5 of 9 innings and went on to defeat the Thunder Bay Border Cats 13-8 on Saturday night at Port Arthur Stadium. It was the third straight victory for Mankato, who will have the chance to end their four game road trip to Duluth and Thunder Bay 4-0 tomorrow. Thunder Bay began the game scoring a run in the first inning. Nick Ciandro singled and scored on a single by Brendan Dougherty.
The MoonDogs tied it at 1 in the second. Logan Busch led off with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by CJ Schaeffer. Then in the third, Daniel Amaral and Jake Shepski scored on RBI’s from Kyle Cuellar and Ryan Kriedler, bringing the score to 3-1.
Thunder Bay retook the lead in the fifth, batting through the order and getting three runs on two hits from Brendan Dougherty and Andy Weber, bringing the score to 4-3. The MoonDogs answered in the top of the sixth, scoring three to lead 6-4. Jake Shepski drove in two with an RBI double to the left-center field gap and Drew Fearing drove in another with a sacrifice fly. The MoonDogs added insurance to their 6-4 lead in the top of the eighth, scoring six runs on five hits and put one more across in the ninth to lead 13-4.
The Border Cats came back to score multiple runs in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases with one out, but ended up falling short by 6. MoonDogs reliever Austin Bollinger got the win, pitching 1.1 innings and not allowing a hit. Border Cats starter Travis Bruinsma (0-1) got the loss, working the first six innings. The MoonDogs put up a total of 18 hits on the evening. They improve to 14-7 in the north division second half standings, 33-23 overall while Thunder Bay falls to 9-13 (22-35 overall).
Tomorrow’s game between the MoonDogs and Border Cats is scheduled for 12:35 CT and will be broadcast on KFAN and online on mankatomoondogs.com. Andy Fisher (Illinois) is expected to get the start for Mankato while Tyler Mielock is on the hill for Thunder Bay.
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 180 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 website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
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