St. Cloud, Minn. – The Battle Creek Bombers (44-31) fell to the St. Cloud Rox (45-30) at Joe Faber Field 7-5 in game one of the Northwoods League Summer Collegiate World Series.

The Bombers started the evening with bases loaded in the first inning. Tom Stoffel (Virginia Tech) doubled on the second pitch of the game. Justin Felix (Arkansas State) and Storm Joop (University of Indianapolis) both worked walks. A groundout back to the pitcher ended the inning.

Zach Karbowski (Kellog Community College) saw the minimum three batters in his first inning of work, thanks to a 5-6-3 double play. Though Zarbowski struggled in his second inning, allowing four runs off three hits. A two-RBI double scored the first runs of the game, giving St. Cloud and early lead. An RBI single and RBI groundout followed to bring in the next two runs giving the Rox a 4-0 lead.

The Bombers offensively couldn’t get much going in the middle of the game. St. Cloud retired thirteen batters consecutively from the second to the sixth innings. Meanwhile St. Cloud took advantage, scoring again in the third off a RBI double to go up 5-0 on Battle Creek.

In the seventh, Battle Creek found a spark. With runners on second and third, St. Cloud threw two wild pitches to score two runs for the Bombers. Joop and Nikola Vasic (Southern Illinois) scoring made it 5-2 St. Cloud. An RBI single for Stoffel scored Aaron Antonini (Middle Tennessee State). Alex Howard (Arkansas State) also singled to cut the deficit to one run for the Bombers. Nick Walker (Austin Peay) hit a fly ball deep enough to score the tying run in the seventh, 5-5.

St. Cloud responded in the home half of the seventh, smashing a home run off Ashton Knutson (Ridgewater College). Knutson also allowed a sac fly RBI, which St. Cloud took a 7-5 lead.

Battle Creek in the eighth had an opportunity to tie the game and maybe take a lead, but left the bases loaded.

Game two of the Summer Collegiate World Series comes to C.O. Brown Stadium Friday night at 7:05 p.m. Don’t miss out on your chance to witness the Northwoods League World Series, tickets are available now at battlecreekbombers.com.

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The Battle Creek Bombers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 160 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.battlecreekbombers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Bombers as your favorite team.