(6/29/06) Josh Yates’ solo home run with two outs in the eighth inning spoiled another solid start by a MoonDogs pitcher, lifting the Wisconsin Woodchucks to a 2-1 win Thursday night.

Tyson Brummett contributed another in a line of quality starts by MoonDogs pitchers, going eight innings and allowing just one earned run on seven hits and striking out eight. But the one earned run was Yates’ drive over the wall in left-center field, the first earned run given up by the MoonDogs in 25.2 innings against the Woodchucks over the last three games.

Wisconsin struck first in the third inning, when Yates hit a sacrifice fly to score Joe Evans, who had reached base on an error by second baseman Nate Hanson, who was filling in for Michael Parker.

The MoonDogs answered in the bottom of the inning, when Adam Kampsen led off with a single and advanced to second on a bunt by Ben Geelan. With two outs, Hanson walked, and Ryan Addison followed with a hard bouncer up the middle that shortstop Ryan Wilkes made a diving stop on, but could make no play, scoring Kampsen with the tying run.

Mankato had several other scoring opportunities that went awry due to baserunning mistakes. In the first, Hanson led off with a single, and with one out, Tim Smith lifted a fly ball to shallow left field that was caught by Wilkes. Hanson had rounded second, and was easily tagged out for a double play.

In the fifth, Chris Henault led off with a single and moved to second on a bunt. After Addison walked, Tim Smith reached when the ball got away from Wilkes, and Henault broke for home. But the Wilkes recovered in time to throw out Henault at home, and Addison, thinking he had been called out at second on the play, was tagged out when he wandered away from the bag.

The MoonDogs’ final threat of the night came in the eighth, when Addison singled and went to second on a balk with nobody out. Smith moved him to third on a groundout to the right side, but Shane Buschini and Sean Halton struck out to end the inning.