Published: June 12, 2008 09:53 pm         

MoonDogs in position for first-half title

Before the season began, Mankato MoonDogs owner Joe Schwei was lamenting his team’s schedule.

Because Franklin Rogers Park annually hosts the high school baseball tournaments in early June, the MoonDogs are forced to open the season with a rash of road games, which usually results in a shoddy record. By the time the team returns home, the first-half championship is often already in jeopardy, if not totally lost.

In 2006, the MoonDogs opened the season with eight of the first 11 games on the road and posted a 2-9 record. In 2007, 12 of the first 14 games were played away from Franklin Rogers Park, and the team was 4-10.

This season, the MoonDogs played a couple of home games before taking the road for six straight, though a couple of those were rained out. However, the MoonDogs returned to their home park this week with a 7-1 record and a two-game lead in the North Division.

Heading into Thursday’s doubleheader, the MoonDogs still maintained a 2 1/2-game edge in the division with a 9-2 record, believed to be the first time the team has been seven games over .500 in any of its 10 seasons.

And it shows at the ballpark. Manager Jason Nell has spent many a frustrating night in the dugout, trying to explain another unexplainable loss. It’s got to be easier to come to the ballpark, make out the lineup card and jog down to coach third base, knowing his team is playing at such a high level.

This team is hitting well, with a .318 batting average, and pitching well. The team earned-run average of 3.12 is inflated somewhat as five of the team’s 35 earned runs allowed were given up in a final-inning loss to Green Bay on Monday.

Carlos Ramirez (16 RBIs) and Wes Freie (15) might threaten the team’s single-season RBI record of 47. Ramirez has hit two home runs, and the franchise record is 10. Freie is batting .405, with Ramirez at .396. Michael Rockett, the best name in the league since Thomas Diamond, is batting .404. Cory Harrilchak has been here less than a week, but he’s already batting .462

Nate Hanson, who established a franchise record by hitting .363 last season, is hitting .304 and needs just 19 hits to tie the franchise career record of 155 hits.

Starters James Dale is 2-0 with a 1.72 ERA, and Ryan Longpre is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA. If there’s a concern about the pitching, it would be the 46 walks and 16 hit batters in 101 innings, though 89 strikeouts and improved defense hides some of that problem. The team has made 13 errors in the first 11 games, which sounds like a lot, but that’s down from last season, when the team made 96 errors in 67 games.

There are 21 games remaining in the first half, nine of which will be played at Franklin Rogers Park, where the team is 58-48 over the last three-plus seasons. The MoonDogs are in position where if they play slightly better than .500, maybe 12-9 in the remaining first-half games, one of the chasers will need to get awfully hot, which is difficult at this time of the season because top players still haven’t arrived from teams competing in the College World Series.

The MoonDogs have become an entertainment fixture in this town, with large crowds showing up nearly every night. The only thing this franchise hasn’t accomplished in the previous nine seasons is make the playoffs, which has made the last week of the season pretty dull.

What a fun summer it would be if the first-half championship was already clinched, with the expectation of the playoffs to keep the fan base energized.



Chad Courrier is a Free Press staff writer. To contact him, call (507) 344-6353 or e-mail at ccourrier@mankatofreepress.com.