(Rochester, Minn.)— The Rochester Honkers dropped the third game of their weekend series against the St. Cloud Rox 6-4. Greg Jakusik (Stevens Institute) was charged with the loss after surrendering five runs in only two innings of work. Brett DeGagne (North Dakota) earned the win for St. Cloud, and Trevor Charpie (Saddleback CC) picked up the save.
The Honkers took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning as Adam Walton (Illinois) stole third to put himself in position to score on William Paschal’s (Georgia Gwinnett) RBI single.
Joe DeRoche-Duffin (UCONN) extended his hit streak to 10 games with a single in the third inning. Matt Fiedler (Minnesota) would follow Duffin’s single with his second homerun of the year with two outs to give Rochester a 3-0 lead.
Bram Grooten (Wentworth Institute) get his second hit of the season, an RBI single in the fourth that scored Paschal to give the Honkers a 4-0 lead.
St. Cloud broke through in the fifth against Honkers’ starter Jordan Gross (Tulane) for a run to cut into the Honkers lead, and tacked on two more in the sixth inning to make it 4-3.
The Rox took the lead in the seventh on a three-run homerun after they hit five total bombs in the double header on Saturday night, putting the Honkers in a 6-4 hole that they would be unable to overcome.
Rochester and St. Cloud split Saturday’s doubleheader, giving the Rox the series 2-1. The Honkers now sit at 7-5 in the second half, tied for third in the North division with Willmar, and trailing first place St. Cloud by 2.5 games. The Honkers are also in third place in the division overall, trailing Willmar and St. Cloud.
The Honkers will hit the road again for a three game road trip that will take them to Mankato for one game and to Thunder Bay for a two game series. They will be back home on Thursday, July 16th to take on the Willmar Stingers. It will be Mayo Department of Medicine Night, and a Novo Nordisk Homerun for Life Thursday.
You can follow all the Honkers action on Sports Radio AM 1520 The Ticket with Clinton Cole, and on the Northwoods League Live stream, which can be found at northwoodsleague.com. Just click on the Watch Games Live link.
The Rochester Honkers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website. For more information, visit www.rochesterhonkers.com
