{"id":17429,"date":"2026-07-02T21:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/?p=17429"},"modified":"2026-07-02T21:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:45:08","slug":"moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/","title":{"rendered":"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>ROCHESTER, MINN. \u2013<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The MoonDogs traveled to Rochester tonight to take on the Honkers for the first time this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mankato opened up the game with an RBI single by Andrew Purdy (University of Alabama) to take an early 1-0 lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rochester answered with their own RBI single from Matt Maize (University of Arizona) to take a 2-1 lead over the MoonDogs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mankato was held scoreless in the second, while the Honkers continued their offensive run to further their lead to 4-1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A scoreless third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings followed for both teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the seventh, Rochester capitalized on a 3 run home run to take a 7-1 lead over the MoonDogs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mankato scored in the eighth off of a bases loaded walk and a checked swing strike to help close the gap to 7-3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An RBI single from Josey Williamson (University of Alabama) in the ninth allowed another run to score, making the score 7-4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MoonDogs were unable to over take the Honkers, as they secured victory at Mayo Field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mankato will take on the Honkers again tomorrow, first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\n<p><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>ROCHESTER, MINN. \u2013 The MoonDogs traveled to Rochester tonight to take on the Honkers for the first time this season.\u00a0  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17389,"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-17429","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) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers - Mankato MoonDogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ROCHESTER, MINN. \u2013 The MoonDogs traveled to Rochester tonight to take on the Honkers for the first time this season.\u00a0 [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mankato MoonDogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T02:45:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin-mankato\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin-mankato\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/\",\"name\":\"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers - Mankato MoonDogs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T02:45:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/7154ae3008036eb93f05139fb5a28762\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":1707,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/\",\"name\":\"Mankato MoonDogs\",\"description\":\"Get Ready for the Show!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/7154ae3008036eb93f05139fb5a28762\",\"name\":\"admin-mankato\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/554f2ee6720fb0d01979c67eb16386f173eafa74fc809cc70dcd36359f9503b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/554f2ee6720fb0d01979c67eb16386f173eafa74fc809cc70dcd36359f9503b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin-mankato\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/author\/admin-mankato\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers - Mankato MoonDogs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers","og_description":"ROCHESTER, MINN. \u2013 The MoonDogs traveled to Rochester tonight to take on the Honkers for the first time this season.\u00a0 [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/","og_site_name":"Mankato MoonDogs","article_published_time":"2026-07-03T02:45:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1707,"height":2560,"url":"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin-mankato","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin-mankato","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/","name":"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers - Mankato MoonDogs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-07-03T02:45:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/7154ae3008036eb93f05139fb5a28762"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/IMG_0523-scaled.jpeg","width":1707,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/2026\/07\/02\/moondogs-drop-first-game-of-series-to-honkers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MoonDogs Drop First Game of Series to Honkers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/","name":"Mankato MoonDogs","description":"Get Ready for the Show!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/7154ae3008036eb93f05139fb5a28762","name":"admin-mankato","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/554f2ee6720fb0d01979c67eb16386f173eafa74fc809cc70dcd36359f9503b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/554f2ee6720fb0d01979c67eb16386f173eafa74fc809cc70dcd36359f9503b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin-mankato"},"url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/author\/admin-mankato\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17430,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17429\/revisions\/17430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/mankato-moondogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}