ROCHESTER, MN. – The Honkers put on a show for all of the 1,009 fans who attended their June 18 game against the Mankato MoonDogs by dominating in every aspect of the game en route to a 9-1 win.
Starting pitcher Ryan Dorney (Saint Martin’s) got the Honkers’ momentum going by striking out three batters and not allowing a run in the first two innings of the game.
Rochester got the first run in their second at-bat when Andy Armstrong (Oregon State) hit an RBI single to score Craig Shepherd (Evansville) who had led off the inning with a single.
Dorney gave up two hits and a walk in the third, but got his fourth strikeout to prevent any MoonDogs from scoring.
The Honkers offense kept the runs coming in the bottom of the third thanks to an RBI sacrifice-fly by Tristan Peterson (New Mexico State) and an RBI single by Zack Zalesky (Oregon State).
After a scoreless fourth inning, Dorney got his seventh strikeout and retired the side to maintain Rochester’s 3-0 lead.
The fifth inning proved to be on the Honkers’ best as they got two solo home runs (one by Peterson and the other by Shepherd) and a third run on a wild pitch to pull ahead 6-0.
Marc Bisogno (Fordham) came in to pitch the sixth inning and Mankato was finally able to get its offense going by hitting three singles, including an RBI single by Tyler Casagrande to get its first run of the game.
Mitchell Allen (New Mexico State) relieved Bisogno in the seventh and although he allowed two runners, he prevented the MoonDogs from scoring any more runs.
Zalesky provided the Honkers with their third solo home run of the game to push their lead back to six runs. But the offense wasn’t done there as they got four singles, including RBI singles from Evan Berkey (Cal State-Bakersfield) and McMahan to take a 9-1 lead.
The MoonDogs got multiple runners on base in the eighth and ninth inning, but couldn’t bring any of those runners home and the Honkers got two strikeouts from Marty Tolson Jr. (Maryland-Eastern Shore) to end the game.
The 9-1 victory improved the Honkers’ record to 13-9.
Dorney earned the win for striking out seven in five shutout innings.
Tristan Petersonl was named the Profile Sanford Player of the Game for going 3-3 with a home run, two RBI, a sacrifice-fly and an intentional walk.
Rochester finishes up their homestand on Wednesday, June 19, against the Mankato MoonDogs. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. After that, the Honkers head to Willmar for the first time this season to take on the Stingers in a two-game series.
Season tickets and new all-you-can-eat ticket packages are available for purchase right now at www.RochesterHonkers.com or by calling the Honkers front office at 507-289-1170.
The Rochester Honkers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 26th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (MIA). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.rochesterhonkers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Honkers as your favorite team.
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