Mankato, Minn. — The MoonDogs fell to the Dultuth Huskies at home on Sunday night by a score of 3-2. With the loss the MoonDogs drop to 21-13 while the Huskies advance to 24-10.
With no runs scored in the early innings, Jarod Wright (Southern Mississippi) worked out of a difficult situation in the sixth to keep the contest even. After striking out the first two Duluth batters, the next two Huskies reached via a double and a walk. Wright quickly rebounded and earned his third strikeout of the inning to bring the MoonDogs to bat.
Mankato then opened the scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning. Garrett Mitchell (UCLA) reached first after laying down a bunt to the third base side and advanced to second after a throwing error by the Duluth pitcher. Jake Shepski gained his 12th RBI of the season after tripling to right field and scoring Mitchell to give the home team a 1-0 lead. CJ Huntly (Indiana State) advanced the lead with a single to right field and scoring Shepski from third to give the MoonDogs a 2-0 advantage.
The Huskies loaded the bases in the ninth inning and tied the game after an RBI double to right field scored two. Duluth were then beneficiaries of an untimely MoonDog error and took the lead as the runner from third came in to score with no play at first. In the bottom half of the inning, Huntley was able to draw a walk and reach first for the MoonDogs but was left stranded as Mankato ultimately dropped the result 3-2.
Jared Wright went 6.2 innings and struck out seven of the 27 batters he faced. Brandon Pfaadt (Bellarmine) was handed the loss on the evening and now holds a 2-2 record.
The MoonDogs will host the La Crosse Loggers at the Frank on Monday night at 7:05 before traveling to Wisconsin to finish off the first half of the season Tuesday.
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The Mankato MoonDogs are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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, more than 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit https://northwoodsleague.com/mankato-moondogs/ 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.