{"id":17410,"date":"2026-06-26T22:16:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/?p=17410"},"modified":"2026-06-26T22:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:16:47","slug":"mankato-strikes-first-never-looks-back-in-win-over-st-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/06\/26\/mankato-strikes-first-never-looks-back-in-win-over-st-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Mankato Strikes First, Never Looks Back in Win Over St. Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>MANKATO, MINN \u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mankato jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, adding two more in the fifth to put away St. Cloud for good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam Hall (Texas State University) battled through five innings, allowing three runs but punching out nine. Alex Blume (Alexandria Tech CC), Maddox Foss (Augustana University SD), and Jack Morris (USC Upstate) combined for four scoreless frames, with Morris earning the save. Mankato&#8217;s staff struck out 14 on the night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liam Ebbs (Wofford College) and Max Senesac (Golden West) each drove in a run, with Charlie Longmeier (University of Evansville) adding another. Tanner Kern (University of San Diego) doubled and swiped a bag in the fifth-inning push.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MoonDogs committed zero errors and played clean baseball throughout, finishing with six hits and five runs while keeping St. Cloud off balance all night. Jack Mislan (Lafayette College) drew a walk and scored, and the &#8216;Dogs went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position to make the most of their opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MoonDogs will face the St. Cloud Rox again Saturday at ISG Field, first pitch is at 6:35 pm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANKATO, MINN \u2013 Mankato jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back, adding two  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17411,"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-17410","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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