(7/2/06) Joey Lieberman’s double scored Marcus Jones with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, lifting the Thunder Bay Border Cats to a 6-5 win over the Mankato MoonDogs on Sunday.

MoonDogs reliever Tom Porter gave up a leadoff single to Ben Petsch in the ninth, but appreared to be on the verge of sending the game to extra innings after getting Brandon Romans to ground into a double play. But Jones singled, and Lieberman drove him home to give the Border Cats a sweep of the two-game series, and their fourth straight win over the MoonDogs.

With the win, the Border Cats retained their one-game lead over Alexandria in the North Division. By dropping six games out with four to play in the first half of the season, the MoonDogs were mathematically eliminated from the first half race.

Mankato had rallied to tie the game after twice falling behind by three runs. MoonDogs starter Dan Klous gave up two unearned runs in the first inning, and Cody Allen’s home run in the second gave Thunder Bay a 3-0 lead. The MoonDogs drew within a run in the fourth when Adam Kampsen drove in Tim Smith on a groundout, and Sean Halton scored on an error.

Trailing 5-2 in the seventh, the MoonDogs rallied again. Chris Henault and Chris Rodriguez delivered back-to-back singles with one out to chase starter Brad Simmons from the game. After reliever Nick Wolle struck out Ryan Addison, Chris Brown hit a three-run home run, his second of the season, to tie the game.