By Connor Wachtel
Mankato, Minn. – The Mankato MoonDogs fell to the St. Cloud as a victim of a two-game sweep on Friday night. The final score went down 4-1 in favor of St. Cloud.
BOX SCORE: St. Cloud 5, Mankato 1
Garett Delano (Brown University) got the Rox on the board first with a double that scored one. That’s all St. Cloud scored in the first however, the score was 1-0 after the MoonDogs had no early response.
In the fourth the MoonDogs evened the score with Josh Elvir (Angelo State) slapping a double to score Adan Fernandez (FIU). It was 1-1 after four frames at The Frank.
Two innings later, in the sixth, St. Cloud pounced on an opportunity to plate two more runs. A single and double each scored one to give the Rox a 3-1 lead in the sixth.
Jordan Barth (Augustana) blasted a home run in the eighth for the Rox. It gave the road team a 4-1 advantage through eight in Mankato.
St. Cloud added an insurance run in the ninth. It was knocked in by Gus Steiger (South Dakota State) after he roped a single to give the Rox a 5-1 lead.
Player Notables:
Player of the Night for the Dogs was Fernandez. He hit 2-4 on the night and scored a run for Mankato.
St. Cloud’s starting arm, Ben Dotzler (Creighton), took home the win for the Rox. He threw 6.2 innings allowing a run and seven hits. He also struck out four along the way. A save was credited to Pedro Garcia (Georgia Gwinnett College) he finished off the final 2.1 innings of work for St. Cloud. He walked one and struck out four.
Trent Baker (Angelo State) was handed the loss as Mankato’s starting arm. Baker went eight complete innings and surrendered four runs (three earned) along with nine hits. He didn’t hand out a free pass and struck out seven Rox batters.
Due up for the dogs:
Tomorrow the Mankato MoonDogs (20-26) stay in town to play host to the Waterloo Bucks (23-22). Jack Schneider (Grand Canyon) will do the pitching for the MoonDogs. He will deliver the game’s first pitch at 6:05 p.m. at Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato, Minn.
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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.
