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Lunkers Battle Way to Victory
July 12, 2010
MANKATO Minnesota--The Lunkers battled their way to a 9-7 victory in the series opener against the Mankato MoonDogs.
Despite getting five no-hit, scoreless innings from Sam Selman, the left-handed pitcher was pulled after throwing 93 pitches.
The Lunkers took full advantage of Mankato's bullpen, scoring all nine of their runs off of MoonDogs relief pitchers, including eight in the top of the sixth inning.
Four errors led to six unearned runs for the Lunkers in that frame, as they collected only three hits in the hits and five overall. The team, however, drew eleven walks and battled all night at the plate.
Patrick Nathanson showed great savvy on the mound in his winning effort for the Lunkers. After struggling with control of his fastball, Nathanson made the adjustment and worked primarily off of his curveball and changeup. After giving up two runs on two hits, with two walks and two hit batters in the first, Nathanson threw four scoreless to follow, keeping the Lunkers in the game.
In the sixth, Matt Hillsinger's walk put the Lunkers on the board. Ryan Abrahamson's single tied the game and then Vince Bruno, in arguably the best at-bat of the season, drew a ten pitch walk--fouling off five offerings from Tim Fangman--giving the Lunkers the lead.
After falling behind 9-2, Mankato fought back to make it 9-5 heading into the ninth, when they roughed up Juan Padilla for two runs before Padilla gave way to Ray Black. With two outs and the tying run at first, Black induced a game-ending ground ball from Troy Larson, securing his sixth save of the season.
The Lunkers saw a total of 192 pitches on night, averaging 5.2 per plate appearance. To put that in perspective, since the stat was tracked, the all-time Major League Baseball average is just over 3.7 pitches per plate appearance. Just shy of half of the team's plate appearances lasted five pitches or more.
Stephen Wickens, though hitless, extended his on-base streak to 18 games with his 3rd inning walk--the longest for any Lunker this season.
The series resumes tomorrow at 7:05 from Franklin Rogers Park.
