By Connor Wachtel
St. Cloud, Minn. – The Mankato MoonDogs lost the first game of the home and home series with the Rox in St. Cloud, Minn. on Thursday night. The final score was 10-1 as offensive power was the difference for the Rox.
BOX SCORE: St. Cloud 10, Mankato 1
Jordan Barth (Augustana) got the Rox on the board first in the first. He slapped a double that scored Gus Steiger (South Dakota State) and gave St. Cloud a 1-0 lead.
In the third, the MoonDogs evened the score with an RBI single from Nick Novak (Angelo State) to score James Gargano (Butler). The score was 1-1 in favor of the Dogs before the bottom half when Garrett Delano (Brown University) launched a three-run home run that gave St. Cloud a 4-1 advantage.
The fourth inning saw Brady Harlan (Oklahoma) single to score Freddy Achecar (Georgetown). The RBI hit upped St. Cloud’s lead to 5-1 after the fourth.
A bases-loaded hit by pitch plated another run for the Rox in the bottom half of the sixth. St. Cloud held a 6-1 lead after the one-run frame.
St. Cloud ran away with the game in the seventh, scoring four runs to up their lead to 10-1. It started off with Delano hitting his 2nd home run of the game. Then a triple and single each combined for three more to finish up the four-run frame for the Rox.
The Dogs had no response in the final two innings and the game went down as a 10-1 final in favor of the Rox.
Player Notables:
Gargano had a solid night, going 2-3 with a run scored in the loss.
The win went to Trevor Koenig (St. Cloud State) after he pitched 6.1 innings. He was hit off three times for one run. Koenig also walked two and struck out seven MoonDogs batters.
The loss went to the MoonDogs starting arm, Nick Schmidt (Missouri State). He threw five complete innings allowing six runs (three earned) and four hits. Schmidt walked three and retired seven with strikeouts.
Due up for the Dogs:
Tomorrow the Mankato MoonDogs (20-25) head back home to The Frank to play host to the St. Cloud Rox (25-19) in the series finale. First pitch from tomorrow’s Dogs starter, Trent Baker (Angelo State), is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato, Minn.
###
The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 25-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, 225 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), World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS) and MLB All-Stars Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (MIA). 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 and set the MoonDogs as your favorite team.
