Thunder Bay, Ont. – The Mankato MoonDogs (3-3) defeated the Thunder Bay Border Cats (2-4) by a score of 5-2 Sunday to pick up their third win of the season. The MoonDogs split the two game series with Thunder Bay in Ontario off the back of strong pitching and timely hitting.
Jonathan Ludwig (Minnesota State) carried a perfect game deep into the fifth inning, allowing only two hits while walking none and striking out seven. Ricky Digrugilliers (Minnesota State) pitched four innings of relief out of the bullpen, allowing two runs.
Despite the MoonDogs leaving the bases loaded three times in the first three innings, Mankato was still able to plate enough runs to win comfortably. The scoring began in the top of the first inning after Kyle MacDonald (Arkansas State) drove in Nick Novak (Angelo State) to give the MoonDogs a 1-0 advantage.
MacDonald would continue his excellent outing in the fourth inning, driving in Northwoods League stolen base leader Kenton Crews (Evansville) with another RBI single to give Mankato a 2-0 lead. In total, MacDonald reached base four times, elevating his batting average to .333.
The MoonDogs would tack on another run in the fourth after MacDonald scored on a wild pitch. Zac Wiley (Bellarmine) and Andrew Morales (Angelo State) also drove in a run in the sixth and ninth innings respectively, sending the MoonDogs to their third win of the year.
The MoonDogs returned to Mankato early Monday morning from Ontario, and will take on the Willmar Stingers Monday evening, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM.
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The Mankato MoonDogs are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods 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 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). 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 Bullfrogs as your favorite team.
