Rochester, Minn. \u2013 On a picturesque evening in Rochester, the MoonDogs felt the opening day jitters, as three errors and two unearned runs led to a 5-3 victory for the Rochester Honkers Thursday evening at Mayo Field.<\/p>\n
Troy Larson (Minnesota) led the offense for the MoonDogs in the opener, recording two hits and an RBI. Cody Fick (Evansville) also added an RBI for the Dogs. <\/p>\n
The MoonDogs never led in the game, as Rochester got out to a 2-0 lead in the second via a two-run home run by Danny Brock.<\/p>\n
Mankato answered with two runs of its own in the third. Larson came around all the way from first on a Chris Murrill (Nicholls State) bunt that was thrown away by the Rochester catcher to make it a 2-1 game. Fick (Evansville) then knocked in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-2 ballgame. <\/p>\n
Mankato nearly took its first lead in the fifth, but Larson was nailed by a perfect throw and tag from Rance Roundy to Drew Beurlein on a shallow fly to right to keep the game at two.<\/p>\n
The momentum carried over for the Honkers, as they added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, to take a 4-2 cushion. <\/p>\n
The MoonDogs would threaten one more time in the seventh, as Xorge Carillo (Central Arizona) and Danny Miller (Minnesota State) started the inning with base hits. After a Nick Judkins (Iowa Central) sacrifice, and a Larson RBI-groundout to make it 4-3, Matt Mullendore got Murrill to strikeout looking to preserve the lead. The Honkers would then add an insurance run in the eighth on a solo blast by William Arnold for the final 5-3 margin.<\/p>\n
Second-year pitcher Ryan Demmin (UW-Oshkosh) pitched well for Mankato, allowing just two earned runs over six innings of work. Demmin struck out five Honkers, falling to 0-1 on the season. Alex Burgos (Manatee) came on in relief of Demmin in the seventh, recording strikeouts for five of his six outs.<\/p>\n
The opener has not been kind to the \u2018Dogs, as they are 1-8 in opening day games since 2002. <\/p>\n
First pitch for the MoonDogs home opener tonight will be at 7:05 p.m. against the same Rochester Honker club. Former major league pitcher Jerry Koosman will be the opening day guest and a fireworks extravaganza will take place after the game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rochester, Minn. \u2013 On a picturesque evening in Rochester, the MoonDogs felt the opening day jitters, as three errors and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"\n