Alexandria, MN–

The first half of the Northwoods League season has come and gone, and the second half race for the final six-playoff spots promises to be entertaining.

Even with a 12-9 loss in the first half finale on Tuesday night in Alexandria, the St. Cloud Rox finished with their best first half record since field manager Augie Rodriguez took over prior to the 2012 season. The Rox currently find themselves in 3rd place in the North division at the halfway point of the 2015 campaign. 

The Rox fell behind early in the first half finale, as they trailed 4-1 after one inning to the Blue Anchors. Alexandria continued to expand their lead, as they led the Rox 11-3 after 5 full innings from Knute Nelson Memorial Park. 

St. Cloud, as they have done throughout the course of the season, continued to fight until the very end of the game, and managed to make what at one point was a blowout into a bit of a nail biter, cutting the Blue Anchors lead to 12-9 before bowing out in the top of the 9th inning.

Lee Miller (Davidson) paced the Rox offense from the plate, as he finished the game 3-3 with 3 RBI's, including a 2-R HR in the top of the 9th inning to cut the Rox deficit to three runs. 

Austin Athmann (University of Minnesota) followed up his offensive explosion in yesterday's double-header with another good game for St. Cloud, going 2-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

With the loss, the Rox are now 4-2 on the season against the Alexandria Blue Anchors, with two more games still to come from Joe Faber Field.

The SC Times player of the game was Lee Miller. Miller was 3-3 with 3 RBI's and a HR for St. Cloud. For more Rox coverage, visit www.SCTimes.com

Tonight's boxscore can be found online at— http://northwoods.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=260357

St. Cloud will return home tomorrow night to host the Waterloo Bucks from Joe Faber Field for the first time this season. First pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM. You can listen to the Rox all season long online at www.1390thefan.com.