ROCHESTER, MN. – The Rochester Honkers and St. Cloud Rox combined to treat fans to a tightly-contested game that came down to the last two innings. Some discipline at the plate and a nasty curveball from their closer helped the Honkers win their home opener 7 to 5 in front of 804 fans.
Marty Tolson Jr. (Maryland-Eastern Shore) came in the eighth inning when the Rox had all the momentum and all he did was record strikeouts. He got six in total to retire all six men he faced. He entered a tie-game but became the winning pitcher thanks to some offensive support in the bottom of the eighth inning. It began with Aaron Simmons (UW-Stevens Point) drawing a walk followed by a walk to Seth Nelson (Golden West Community College). Joey Stock came in to pitch for St. Cloud and he immediately gave up a RBI single to Ryan Wrobleski (Dallas Baptist) and a wild pitch to give the Honkers a two-run lead.
The Honkers began the game with a bang thanks to a Wrobleski triple that scored Nelson to give Rochester a 1-0 lead. The Rox tied it up with one swing by Andrew Garcia who’s home run sailed over the wall in left-center field. Besides that, Ryan Middendorf (Lake Erie College) played nearly flawlessly as he only gave up one more run in five innings.
Rochester built a big lead in bottom of the fourth inning due to a couple walks from St. Cloud starter RJ Martinez and a couple errors by their infield. Both walks came with the bases loaded, then Craig Shepherd (Evansville) hit a RBI single, and lastly a bobbled fielder’s choice allowed the Honkers’ fifth run to score.
The Rox slowly clawed their way back into the game. They got one run in the sixth on a sacrifice-fly followed by two runs in seventh on RBI singles to tie the game, 5 to 5. Thankfully for all Honkers’ fans in attendance, Tolson Jr. was able to shut the door on the Rox rally and the Honkers began their season with a win.
Season tickets and new all-you-can-eat ticket packages are available for purchase right now at www.RochesterHonkers.com or by calling the Honkers front office at 507-289-1170.
The Rochester Honkers are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 26th season, the Northwoods 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, over 200 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (MIA). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.rochesterhonkers.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Honkers as you
