WATERLOO, Iowa – For the second consecutive game the MoonDogs jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back.

The Mankato MoonDogs (13-9, 32-24) jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead as the Dogs collected three hits in the inning as well, however, the Waterloo Bucks (5-17, 14-42) would strike back in the bottom of the inning scoring as Josh Patrick hit a sac fly scoring Caleb Corbin to make it 3-1 through one.

The same run line would carry in the second inning as the score doubled for both sides making it a 6-2 game through two.

From there, back-and-forth the game went with Mankato scoring two in the fourth, a couple of frames later Waterloo scored two of their own in the bottom of the fifth.

But from there Waterloo struggled to score, although there were highlights such as Alex Crouch ending the ballgame just a home run shy of the cycle.

As Mankato scored three more runs combined to nearly put the game away, Waterloo wasn’t ready to go down without a fight in the bottom of the ninth trailing 11-4.

In the bottom of the ninth, Tai Walton hit an RBI double scoring Clayton Gray and Crouch drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 11-6, the eventual final score as the next batter, Shaydon Kubo, flew out to center to end the game.

The Bucks are now on a five-game losing streak heading into their penultimate road trip of the season to take on the Express from Carson Park in Eau Claire. First pitch for Monday’s game is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. You can listen to that game, as well as all Bucks road games at waterloobucks.com.