MoonDogs win North Division first-half crown

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Mankato MoonDogs' Chad Christensen lays down a bunt during the second inning of their game against the St. Cloud Rox Saturday at Franklin Rogers Park. Two runs scored on the bunt after a throwing error to first base. Pat Christman

July 1, 2012

MoonDogs win North Division first-half crown

By Denny Weller Special to The Free Press The Mankato Free Press Sun Jul 01, 2012, 12:09 AM CDT

MANKATO — The Mankato MoonDogs’ sizzling start to the Northwoods League baseball season continued Saturday night at Franklin Rogers Park as a crowd of 1,128 witnessed a 4-1 victory over St. Cloud that clinched the first-half North Division championship.

Three MoonDogs pitchers — Seth Webster, Matt Marsh and Patrick Goelz — combined on a six-hitter as Mankato upped its impressive record to 24-7 (.774) on the season with four first-half games remaining.

“Every game has a different story to it, and tonight it was starting pitching, relief pitching and our defense early on,” MoonDogs manager Mike Orchard said. “I know it sounds cliche, but you could say it has been a different guy or two winning games for us each night. This is a great group of 26 guys, and we’re getting guys to contribute in a lot of different areas.

“Now, we have to keep that balance between keeping guys sharp and giving them a little time off while we set our pitching up for the postseason.”

Mankato, which has now captured three straight first-half titles, scored three runs in the bottom of the second off tough-luck loser Andrew Urban after DH Blair Moore bounced a lead-off single up the middle. Craig Massoni was then hit by a pitch before a two-base throwing error on Chad Christensen’s bunt single produced a pair of runs.

Shortstop Chris Munoz then picked up an RBI with an infield out. Webster used a bevy of off-speed pitches to set down the first 12 hitters before Carlos Lopez laced one of his two singles into right-center field.

Mark Rhine’s sacrifice bunt moved him up, and Nick Tanielu lined a two-out RBI single into left field. Webster allowed five hits over 6 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking none in improving to 3-0 on the year.

Mankato tallied its final run off Urban, who fanned nine and walked one in giving up six hits over eight frames, in the sixth when Munoz smacked a double into the left-center field gap and scored on Cody Ferrell’s two-out single through the hole.

“It’s good to be on a good baseball team during the summer,” said Ferrell, who also played on last year’s Northwoods League runner-up team. “We have a lot of fun, and we’re real cohesive. Everybody likes everybody, and that makes it easier to play together. There’s not a lot of differences from last year, but the similarities are there in that we’ve done all the basics and things have worked out.”

Marsh, who entered the game with a nifty 0.61 earned-run average, retired all five batters he faced, striking out three in tossing 19 pitches. Goelz struck out one and gave up an infield single to Rhine over the final inning to nail down his league-leading eighth save of the season.

“We’ve got a great bunch of guys, and our chemistry is good,” Marsh said. “Our pitching staff competes with each other, and our hitting gets hot at the right times. Our starters have done the job getting through six or seven innings, and the bullpen guys love to get in there and compete. ... It just makes us that much hungrier.”

Mankato, which has defeated the Rox six times in seven games this year, was 23-10 a year ago in the first half. The two teams meet tonight in St. Cloud.

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