Mankato MoonDogs
We return to the collegiate Northwoods League to see the Mankato MoonDogs host the St. Cloud Rox at ISG Field.
ISG Field in Mankato was built in 1961 and was originally called Key City Park, reflecting Mankato’s nickname and its identity as a “key” hub for railroad and river transportation. In 1977, the ballpark’s name was changed to Franklin Rogers Park to honor the longtime sports editor and columnist for the Mankato Free Press, who was a champion of local amateur and town baseball.
What lovely little facts these are, so connected to the community and its identity.
Since 2018, the 2,200-seat ballpark has been known as ISG Field, sponsored by an employee-owned firm based in Mankato that performs civil engineering, environmental services, and architectural work. That partnership has meant the ballpark can have good things, like new lighting, a renovated grandstand roof, additional seating, a concession stand, and a turf field.
Dad and I had come to see our second game in the collegiate Northwoods League between the Mankato MoonDogs and the visiting St. Cloud Rox. We had seen the Rox slip past the Bismarck Larks just three nights earlier.
The MoonDogs began in 1999 as the Mankato Mashers, then switched to the MoonDogs moniker in 2002 when the franchise was sold to a new owner. The club reached the Northwoods League championship series in 2011 (against the Battle Creek Bombers), 2012 (La Crosse Loggers), and 2014 (Lakeshore Chinooks), but lost each time. They have not returned since.
An impressive list of alumni have played collegiate summer league ball in Mankato, including future major leaguers Curtis Granderson, Brandon Crawford, Jack Hannahan, Jake Petricka, John Brebbia, and Nick Goody.
Dad and I were greeted at the front gate by mascot Muttnik. His press materials list him at 6-foot-3 and 210 lbs. — a dubious claim given the evidence before us. We were also greeted by a free shirt, and not a cheapo white tee dominated by a monochrome corporate logo, but a good one I’d wear just about anywhere.
Dad and I ducked into the team shop shed to evaluate our purchasing options.
The merchandise was limited in the shed, but additional racks outside showcased more shirts and hoodies sporting the current “MD” logo, the previous spike-collard MoonDogs logo, and options for the Mankato Habaneros, who won the inaugural Northwoods League Softball Championship in 2024.
It was still early in the collegiate summer league season, when results can be skewed by talented players still involved in conference and NCAA tournaments who have not yet arrived for summer baseball. St. Cloud was tied for first in the Great Plains West division, with Mankato three games back. The Rox would take the first-half title, but the MoonDogs rallied in the second half, posting a 23-11 record and sending them to the playoffs for the first time in four years. Mankato rode that momentum to a first-round, best-of-three win against St. Cloud before losing to the Duluth Huskies in the division series.
I walked down the right-field line to find MoonDogs players running an enthusiastic Circle Drill, tossing a ball in unexpected directions with pace.
Mankato wore their standard black jerseys with pinstripe pants, while St. Cloud had donned their light-blue “Granite City” jerseys.
Anthony Pardo, a freshman from Illinois State University, took the mound for the MoonDogs to start things off. Pardo had lasted four innings, giving up just one earned run, in his first start of the season a week earlier against the Waterloo Bucks — a game the MoonDogs lost 14-1. But this was not the young right-hander’s night. He allowed three runs on three walks and two hits in the top of the first and was pulled from the game.
His opposite number was Hunter Day, a mustachioed righty from Minnesota State University in Mankato who would put up an 8-0 record in 10 games with the Rox in the summer of 2025. He held the MoonDogs scoreless in the first.
I went searching for dinner for the two of us, scouting all of the options and taking photos of menus to show Dad so he could make a well-informed culinary decision.
The team had given us complimentary access to the Dog Pound, a group seating area down the third-base line with a good-looking buffet of ballpark standards. Dad had an extra-meaty brat, and I made myself a very good pulled pork sandwich.
Mankato institution Jeff “Stunt Monkey” Lang — aka Stunt the Beer Man — is a local FM radio host known for his on-air stunts and promotions. He was also in his 18th season of selling beer at MoonDogs games and worked the crowd with well-practiced calls of “Beer here! Ice cold beeeeeeeeeer!”
In the fourth inning, Dad and I squeezed into the broadcast booth with Zach Berman, the voice of the MoonDogs, for an half-inning chat about our road trip. These are good challenges for young broadcasters — smoothly handling an interview with people you’ve never met while tracking and calling the game between questions and answers. Zach did great.
St. Cloud first baseman Joshua Dykhoff led off the top of the fifth with a double, and center fielder Nolan Geislinger brought him home to extend the lead to 4-0.
This was no St. Paul Saints game, but there were efforts to entertain between innings: a sack race; a mid-game kids run around the bases; a competition between players from each side trying hit a ball over the fence from the first-base dugout; a race between two girls who had to don MoonDogs uniforms and run to the finish line; and kids tossing beanbags through the holes of a sign advertising roofing company Schwickert's Tecta America, whose headquarters are in Mankato. (Watch the episode!)
Mankato cobbled together its first run of the night in the bottom of the fifth to make it 4-1 Rox. I took a walk to the outfield for another view as night fell over southern Minnesota.
St. Cloud put runners on base in the seventh, but right-hander Augden Hallmark kept them off the board for the third of his four scoreless innings in relief.
The game found a new gear after the seventh-inning stretch, when Mankato catcher Brandon Vicko led off with a triple. A single scored him and chased Hunter Day from the mound at last. But his relief — normally reliable University of Iowa freshman Jaron Bleeker — was anything but. He walked his first two batters, then gave up two singles for another MoonDogs run. A fielder’s choice tied the score at 4-4.
Bleeker left the game, and Ryan Beaird of Tarleton State took the mound. By now, the crowd was fully engaged, their shouts and chants echoing under the old grandstand. They were rewarded when first baseman Tony Lira collected his second hit of the night past the St. Cloud shortstop and gave the home team a 6-4 lead.
It felt like everything had turned out as it should, with the MoonDogs prevailing in the end. But in the top of the ninth, a single and an error put two runners aboard with two outs. Down to the last out, Rox right fielder Tanner Recchio blooped a ball that fell just inside the left-field line, scoring both runners and tying the game 6-6.
But there was insult to add to this injury. Recchio stole third base off reliever Will Page-Allen, who was a bit rattled after giving up the tying hit with two out in the ninth. On the next batter, Page-Allen tossed a pitch well outside and out of the reach of his catcher. It bounced to the backstop, and Recchio came sliding head-first into home for the go-ahead run.
A deflated feeling if disappointment permeated the crowd and, no doubt, the MoonDogs. Rox closer Brandon Jaenke slammed the door shut in the ninth, striking out the side for the win. St. Cloud 7, Mankato 6.