Blue Thunder rally falls short

MANKATO -Adam Symons tried to ignite a ninth-inning rally Thursday.

The infielder doubled and later scored on a wild pitch to close the Brainerd Blue Thunder to within one, but Mankato's Chad Dawson struck out Ryan Lipkin to pick up his seventh save for a 5-4 Northwoods League victory at Franklin Rogers Park.

Symons finished 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI for Brainerd, which dropped its seventh straight.

The Blue Thunder opened up a 2-0 lead after two innings. Andy Dirks opened the game with a triple and scored on a Ben Orloff ground out.

In the second, Patrick Rose reached on an error, stole second and scored on Symons' single.

Mankato rallied with two in the third and two in the fifth. The Moondogs scored the eventual winning run in the sixth inning.

Andrew Pascoe dropped to 0-2 as he allowed nine hits and three earned runs. He struck out three and walked two.

Orloff drove in Tyler Metcalf in the fifth to finish 2-4 with two RBIs.

Brainerd starts a two-game home stand with Thunder Bay and ends the first half of the season at Rochester.

Brainerd 110 010 001 - 4 7 2

Mankato 002 021 00x - 5 11 1

Brainerd: Andrew Pascoe, Alex Guttosch (6), Andy Dirks (8) and Ryan Lipkin. Mankato: Luke Vine, Chad Dawson (9). W: Vine (3-1). L: Pascoe (0-2). Sv: Dawson (7).

2B: Brd-Adam Symons, Man-Nate Hanson, Cody Decker, Jason Christian. 3B: Brd-Andy Dirks. SB: Brd-Patrick Rose, Man-Nicol. Sac: Man-Sean Nicol, Jaime Armendariz. RBI: Brd-Ben Orloff 2, Symons; Man-Decker, Christian, Armendariz. LOB: Brd 5, Man 11. T: 2:32. Attendance: 913.

Overall: Brd 11-23, Man 17-17. Next: Brainerd hosts Thunder Bay at Mills Field 7:05 p.m. Friday.