\n\tThe Mankato MoonDogs (35-27\/14-12) picked up a key North Division victory in St. Cloud, defeating the Rox (33-29\/14-13) 7-1 on a beautiful Wednesday evening at Joe Faber Field.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the win the MoonDogs now sit just 1.5 games behind the Waterloo Bucks with 10 games remaining in the regular season and are heading into a big two-game series with Duluth before beginning a four-game series with second place Wilmar on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAustin Warner was terrific in the spot start for the MoonDogs, improving to 3-2 on the season. The lefty from Bellarmine tossed five innings, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out three. Garret Ring tossed three shutout innings of relief and Tyler Mark added a scoreless ninth to secure the victory for the MoonDogs over their division foe.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tPatrick Massoni led the MoonDogs on offense, collecting four hits while also driving in a run. Tanner Rockwell drove in four runs, including a two-run blast to finish the night 2-4. Derek Umphres and Brent Zimmerman added a hit while Craig Lepre drove in a run.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSeth Heck drove in the only run for the Rox while Chris Paul and Will Craig each collected two hits for St. Cloud in the loss.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJosh Taylor suffered the loss for the Rox, falling to 1-2 on the season. The southpaw allowed four runs, one of which was earned, on six hits while walking two and striking out four. The MoonDogs also picked up one run off of Dalton Sawyer and two more off of Chad Hockin.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRockwell gave the MoonDogs an early lead with a sacrifice fly in the top of the first, plating Massoni who led off the ballgame with a double. Rockwell wasn’t done there as the MoonDogs third baseman crushed a two-run homer in the third and Massoni also drove in a run with a single to give the MoonDogs a 4-1 lead heading into the home half of the third.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLepre gave the MoonDogs an insurance run with an RBI single down the left field line in the eighth. Rockwell then capped off his big night with an RBI double to left-center in the ninth and later scored when Umphres reached on a Rox fielding error.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe MoonDogs open a two-game home stand against the Duluth Huskies on Thursday evening at 7:05 p.m. Left-hander Dillon Williams (1-2, 2.87\/Shelton State) makes his seventh start of the season for the MoonDogs while righty Sean Poppen (0-6, 7.57\/Harvard) gets the nod for the Huskies at Franklin Rogers Park.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIf you can’t make it out to the park you can listen to the game on AM1230 The Fan Mankato with the radio voice of the MoonDogs Josh Horton with the pre-game show beginning at 6:45 p.m.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. The 20-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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, 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (DET) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Allen Craig (STL) and Ben Zobrist (TB). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League YouTube channel. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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