{"id":17332,"date":"2026-06-05T07:04:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/?p=17332"},"modified":"2026-06-05T07:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:04:56","slug":"moondogs-take-the-win-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/06\/05\/moondogs-take-the-win-on-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"MoonDogs Take the Win on the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WILLMAR, MINN. \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0The Mankato MoonDogs traveled to Willmar on Thursday night for the opening game of a back-to-back series against the Stingers, securing a 6-2 victory.<\/p>\n<p>In a slow start, both teams remained scoreless through the first five innings.<\/p>\n<p>The MoonDogs broke through in the top of the sixth inning, taking a 1-0 lead as Anthony Avalos (Houston Christian University) crossed the plate.<\/p>\n<p>Luke Ballantyne (Biola University) delivered a strong performance on the mound, pitching six innings and throwing 96 pitches. He held the Stingers to just two hits, no earned runs and recorded nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>The MoonDogs\u2019 offense came alive in the eighth inning. Justin Rompre (Iowa Western CC) recorded the team\u2019s first hit of the game with a three-run home run, extending the lead to 4-0.<\/p>\n<p>Charlie Buckles (Florida State University) followed with a two-run home run later in the inning, pushing the MoonDogs\u2019 advantage to 6-0.<\/p>\n<p>Willmar added two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.<\/p>\n<p>The MoonDogs won the game with a final score of 6-2.<\/p>\n<p>The MoonDogs will return to action Friday, June 5, in Willmar for the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\">###<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>The Northwoods League is the proven leader in developing elite college baseball players. Having completed its\u2019 32nd season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in history with 26 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, over 410 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TOR), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford and World Series Champion Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019\/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, MLB All-Star, MLB Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (NYM).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WILLMAR, MINN. \u2014\u00a0The Mankato MoonDogs traveled to Willmar on Thursday night for the opening game of a back-to-back series against  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - 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