Willmar, Minn- The Mankato MoonDogs dropped their second straight game to the Willmar Stingers, 3-1 Friday night at Bill Taunton Stadium.

The MoonDogs offense had a rough night at the plate scoring one run on five hits, and were handcuffed all night long by excellent pitching. Stingers starting pitcher, Scott Leiser (St. Cloud St.) earned his third victory of the summer, striking out 10 MoonDogs batters over 7 plus innings of work. Zak Wasserman (Louisville) scored the lone run of the game for Mankato in the eighth inning on a Nick Judkins (Creighton) RBI single. Wasserman led the MoonDogs offensively, going 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk and a run scored.

Jeff Rohrbach (St. Edwards) matched Leiser early on, but suffered the tough luck loss, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out four batters over five innings of work. Matt Mazzoni (Fresno Pacific) came out of the bullpen for the final three innings of work, allowing one run on three hits, striking out five.

The MoonDogs and Stingers wrap up their season series Saturday afternoon in a split day-night double header. The Stingers hold a 5-3 record over all in 2011 over the Moondogs, and have now won five straight against Mankato. Sam Selman (Vanderbilt) takes the mound in game one for the MoonDogs, with first pitched scheduled for 1:05pm. Game two is scheduled for 7:05, but the MoonDogs starting pitcher is TBD.

The MoonDogs return home Sunday evening to take on the first place, Alexandria Beetles in a pivotal two game series starting August 7th at Franklin Rogers Park. Tickets for any of the MoonDogs remaining home games are now on sale at the MoonDogs office located at 1221 Caledonia Street. For more information visit our website at www.mankatomoondogs.com or call the MoonDogs office at 507-625-7047.