<\/p>\n
St. Cloud, MN \u2014 Going on the road to face the team in first place doesn\u2019t seem like a recipe for success, but the Rochester Honkers pulled off the second of two consecutive upsets by beating the St. Cloud Rox 8-4 on Friday, August 9.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Flock scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning, when Andy Armstrong (Oregon State) hit a double-play which allowed Evan Berkey (Cal State-Bakersfield) to score from third base.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rochester starter Marty Tolson Jr. (Maryland-Eastern Shore) also got off to an impressive start by retiring three of the first four batters he faced.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Up 1-0, the Honkers kept their offensive momentum going in the top of the second inning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zack Zalesky (Oregon State) hit a two-run single that brought home Ryan Wrobleski (Dallas Baptist) and A.J. Miller (Oregon) and Kyler McMahan (Oregon State) hit a sac-fly to score Austin Schell (Golden West College) to give the Flock a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tolson Jr. recorded his second consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rochester improved its lead 5-0 in top of the fourth inning when Henry George (Minnesota-Duluth) hit an RBI sac-fly which scored Zalesky from third base.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Honkers tacked on another run in the top of the fifth when Zalesky hit Rochester\u2019s third consecutive sac-fly to bring home Wrobleski.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After getting no hits and only two walks through the first four innings, St. Cloud\u2019s offense finally broke through against Tolson Jr. in the bottom of the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rox\u2019 center fielder Ben Carew hit a two-run single to trim the Flock\u2019s lead to 6-2.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Honkers got those two runs back in the top of the seventh inning when Berkey hit a two-run single which scored Miller and Schell.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now leading 8-2, Marc Bisogno (Fordham) came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh for Rochester. Tolson Jr. ended his night with five strikeouts in six innings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bisogno recorded a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh, but St. Cloud scored two runs in the eighth inning on an error by Honkers\u2019 first baseman Miller and a sac-fly by Garett Delano.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With their lead reduced to 8-4, Rochester called upon Mitchell Allen (New Mexico State) to pitch the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He did a great job by retiring the first three batters he faced, including two strikeouts to seal the Flock\u2019s 8-4 win.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The victory improves the Honkers\u2019 second-half record to 19-16 and their overall record is now 37-33.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tolson Jr. earned Profile Sanford Player of the Game honors for striking out five, giving up just two hits, and no earned runs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rochester concludes its season in Mankato on Saturday and Sunday, August 10-11. Saturday\u2019s game starts at 6:05 p.m., while Sunday\u2019s game starts at 3:05 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
St. Cloud, MN \u2014 Going on the road to face the team in first place doesn\u2019t seem like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,15,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepagenewsslider","category-team-news","category-update-ticker"],"yoast_head":"\n