Honkers Swept in Two-City Double Header Against Mankato

In a schedule oddity, the Honkers (6-23) and Mankato MoonDogs (19-11) played two today with the first talking place this afternoon in Mankato and the second played at Mayo Field here in Rochester.

The Honkers were without field manager Trevor Hairgrove once again as team officials announced that his wife McKenna, gave birth to their son Magnus earlier today.

Despite big offense in game one and good pitching in game two the Honkers were unable to get them both at once losing the first game 10-8 and the second 5-1.

Game 1

Power was on display for the Honkers in game one of the twin billing but the pitching didn't match as they took a 10-8 loss to the MoonDogs this afternoon in Mankato.

Pitching hurt the Honkers once again getting down 4-0 after three innings, due to a two-run double from Chase Hamilton in the first, and another RBI double from Hamilton in the third with a Jordan Kozicky sacrifice fly to right field.

The Honkers responded in the top half of the fourth with two runs of their own thanks to Joey Czarske's two-run home run, his third of the year.

However Honkers' starter Spencer Johnson gave up two more of his seven total earned runs in the bottom half of the inning to bring the game to 6-2.

In the fifth and sixth the Honkers were able to take the lead with six runs, three each inning, culminating in a solo shot by Casey Worden his third of the year, after Alex Fitchett hit his fourth earlier that inning, to give the Honkers a 8-7 lead.

That lead was short lived as the MoonDogs scored one in the bottom half of the inning to knot it up at 8-8.

In the seventh, the MoonDogs dealt the Honkers the final blow in the slug fest as Drew Fearing hit his first home run of the year off of Bayley Chesterton (L, 0-1), to make the score 9-8, and then Marcus Pingleton drove in Alvaro Rubalcaba to bring the game to it's final score.

Chesterton was given the loss as Kevin Yarabinec (W, 3-0) was given his third win out of relief this season.

Game 2

Game two wasn't marked by power but rather by better pitching, and much timelier hitting, but it wasn't enough for the Honkers to pull out the victory.

The Honkers were able to get the lead in the second 1-0, when Kyle Kasser scored on Jacob Thomas' sac fly to left.

After not allowing a hit through 3.2 innings, Honkers Starter Robert Paccione, in his first start of the year, gave up a towering home run to left by Bryce Adams to tie up the game 1-1.

Paccione was removed after allowing the first two runners to reach in the top of the fifth, with acting field manager Kokoris bringing in Ricky Delgado (L, 0-2) who struck out three of the next four batter, including two straight with the bases loaded to get out of the jam unscathed.

However, Delgado wasn't so successful in the sixth. After retiring the first two easily, Delgado was another pitcher for the honkers to allow two out runs as he gave up two straight hits and a walk, he gave up the go-ahead two-run single to Gavin Wehby to bring the score to 3-1.

In the seventh, Tanner Schumacher straight out of the pen gave up on run as Chase Hamilton scored on Drew Fearing's RBI single to make the score 4-1. Schumacher allowed one more in the eighth when Alvaro Rubalcaba scored on a double play making the score 5-1.

In the bottom half of the inning the Honkers began their comeback/almost tied the game by scoring three in the inning. The first run was scored on Casey Worden's RBI single to drive in Turner Buis. Brett Harrison then came up after Kyle Kasser walked to load the bases and hit a fly ball to left that allowed Joey Czarske to score making it a 5-3 game.

The next play was the most interesting of the game. Jacob Thomas smoked a ball to the MoonDogs shortstop Alvaro Rubalcaba, Rubalcaba was unable to handled it which allowed Casey Worden to score, giving Thomas an RBI single. However on the same play Kasser got caught in between home and third and on a 6-2-5-2-4 rundown, was called out for the final out of the inning.

After giving up 3 runs, two earned in the eighth, MoonDogs pitcher Brian Gadsby (W, 1-0) in his fifth inning retired the Honkers in order to give his team the doubleheader sweep.

The Honkers will be back at Mayo Field again tomorrow night at 7:05 as they play the Eau Claire Express (20-10).