Rochester 6, Thunder Bay 3 The Rochester Honkers pounded out 14 hits and used a great pitching performance from Rochester native, Josh McKeon (Upper Iowa), to beat Thunder Bay 6-3. McKeon threw 6.0 innings of four hit baseball to improve his record to 3-1.
J.R. Graham (Santa Clara) of the Madison Mallards earned the win and had the game winning hit against the Wisconsin Woodchucks on Friday night. Graham threw a scorless tenth inning to earn the win and drove in Kyle Gaedele with the game winning RBI. Josef Terry of Rochester had a four hit performance against the Thunder Bay Border Cats.
Rudy Jaramillo improved his record to 2-1 on the season for the Eau Claire Express while he helped beat the Green Bay Bullfrogs 9-0. Jaramillo threw 7.0 innings of scoreless baseball while only giving up two hits. The lefty currently has a 1.29 ERA in 28 innings pitched. Jared Wagoner (Butler) of the Waterloo Bucks also threw a great game.
St. Cloud 5, Alexandria 4 It took eleven innings for the St. Cloud River Bats to beat the Alexandria Beetles on Thursday night. The River Bats won by a score of 5-4. Devon Rodriguez (California Berkeley) had a great night at the plate going 3-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI in the win. Josh Smith (Wichita State) earned the win throwing 4.0 innings of scoreless baseball.
Former St. Cloud River Bat, Robbie Weinhardt, made his Major League debut for the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night. Weinhardt came in relief of Max Scherzer (La Crosse) in the eighth with a three run cushion and allowed one run and a hit in his debut against the Baltimore Orioles. The 24-year-old right-hander hit the first Orioles batter he faced, but induced a double play and a fly out to get out of the eighth inning.
Kyle Roliard (Louisiana Tech) had a great night at the plate for the Duluth Huskies. His four hits helped the Huskies beat the Rochester Honkers by a score of 11-7 at Mayo Field in Rochester. Roliard ended the game at 4-for-5 with three runs scored and four RBI. He doubled and also had a homerun in the game. Roliard is hitting .264 in 87 at bats for the Huskies and has six extra base hits on the year.
Kodey Simon (Winona State) led the La Crosse Loggers to victory over the Battle Creek Bombers by a score of 2-0. Simon threw 7.0 innings of three hit baseball while not giving up a run. Simon improved to 1-1 on the season with a 2.29 ERA and a save. For Winona State this season, Simon was 4-1 with four saves and a 2.97 ERA in 36.1 innings pitched.
Thunder Bay 8, Brainerd 3 Thunder Bay jumped out to a 7-0 lead and cruised to victory at an 8-3 clip against the Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers. Thunder Bay pounded out 15 hits and were led by Ryan Court (Illinois State) who was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI.
The Rochester Honkers are the ‘First Half Champions’ of the North Division of the NWL. The Rochester Honkers won the North Division with a 19-11 record, 2.5 games ahead of St. Cloud and Willmar. The Eau Claire Express are battling the Green Bay Bullfrogs for the South Division First Half Championship. The two play each other the next two days with Green Bay needing to sweep to clinch the tiebreaker. The first half of the season ends July 8th.
Andrew Aplin (Arizona State) played his first game in for the St. Cloud River Bats this season and had made his presence known. Aplin was 2-for-4 with a homerun, two runs scored and three RBI. He and his Sun Devil teammates were recently at the NCAA College World Series. He hit .337 this season in 41 games played for ASU. Cody Asche (Nebraska) led the Duluth Huskies to victory over the Rochester Honkers by a score of 8-5.
