By: Connor Wachtel

LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Mankato MoonDogs (5-3) suffered a shutout at the hands of the La Crosse Loggers (4-4) in a 4-0 contest that signaled their first losing streak of the season, Monday at Copeland Park. 

 

The Loggers started the scoring with Ronald Sweeny III hitting a sacrifice fly that scored Aidan Sweatt in the first inning to make it a 1-0 game. From that point on, the Loggers didn’t look back, scoring three more runs between the sixth and seventh innings, to complete a sweep of the MoonDogs with a 4-0 victory, Monday. 

 

Hits favored in the way of La Crosse, 10-6, and each team had one error in the ballgame. 

 

The win went to Loggers’ pitcher Travis Luensmann, who now owns a 1-0 record, after he threw up six innings of scoreless baseball. Luensmann allowed six hits in the outing, walked two and struck out three. 

 

In his first start of the season, the loss went to Nolan Pender (Bellarmine) to drop him to a 1-1 record in 2021. Pender went 4.1 innings Monday while giving up seven hits for a run while walking a pair and striking out four others. 

 

The Mankato MoonDogs will now return to ISG Field to host two games with the Bismarck Larks, starting Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. 

 

-DOGS- 

The Mankato MoonDogs are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 27th season, the Northwoods 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, over 230 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB All-Star Jordan Zimmermann (DET). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. 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.