St. Cloud, Minn. – The MoonDogs lost their second consecutive game to the St. Cloud River Bats on Thursday night at Joe Faber Field by a score of 7-3. St. Cloud’s Bryan Haar (San Diego) had his second home run in as many a three-run shot in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach.

MoonDog Shaun Cooper (Utah) hit his 20th home run of the season, a solo shot in the third inning, making him the Northwoods League all-time single season home run record holder. The single season home run record was previously Jason Washam who played for Rochester in 1994, which was the Northwoods League’s inaugural season. That year Washam hit 19 home runs for Rochester, a record that stood for 16 years before Cooper broke it Thursday night.

Nick Judkins (Creighton) led the MoonDogs offense at the plate going 2-for-5 with one RBI and a double. Mike Rivera (Fresno Pacific) was 2-for-5 on the night, and Cooper was 1-for-3 from the leadoff spot with two runs scored, an RBI and a stolen base.

MoonDog starting pitcher Sam Selman (Vanderbilt) suffered the loss on the mound, pitching 6 1/3 innings, giving up six earned runs off of nine River Bat hits, while striking out six and walking five. Selman now falls to 2-4, but still has a solid 3.89 ERA. Matt Iannazzo (Pittsburgh) was the winning pitcher for St. Cloud, pitching five innings, with two hits and two earned runs while striking out eight MoonDogs. Iannazzo now moves to 5-1 on the season with a 2.17 ERA.

The MoonDogs will try and muster a win against St. Cloud Friday night at 7:05 in game three of the series. Jeff Rohrbach (St. Edwards) is the probable starting pitcher for the MoonDogs and Andy Urban (Hutchinson CC) is the probable starter for St. Cloud. The MoonDogs will return home Saturday and battle the Thunder Bay Border Cats in their final home stand of the season.