Thunder Bay, ON—

Trailing 1-0 with 2 outs in the 9th inning, the Rox bats came alive at the last possible moment to help them steal game number one against the Border Cats on Friday night. 

Playing in Canada for the first time this season, the Rox were held scoreless through eight innings as the Rox and Border Cats had themselves a good old-fashioned pitchers duel. 

Andrew Clemen (SDSU) made the start on the mound for St. Cloud, and after a few errors in the first inning by the Rox defense, trailed 1-0 after one inning. After the first, Clemen was lights out on the mound, as he went 7 innings, giving up 3 hits while striking out 7, as the Border Cats scored their lone run in the first.

Entering the 9th down by a run, John Sansone (Florida St.) led the inning with a walk after working the count full. After a bunt advanced Sansone to second, and a strikeout for out number two, Liam Bedford (Doane College) singled to put runners on the corner with two outs. Connor Crane (Mcneese St.) entered the game for Bedford as a pinch runner, and promptly stole second base to put two runners in scoring position as Brett Pope (Western Carolina) came to the plate. Pope battled his way to a full count, before dropping a soft single into left field to score both Sansone and Crane to give the Rox the lead.

Trevor Charpie (Saddleback CC) remained on the mound in the 9th for the Rox after entering in the 8th, and things tightened up as Thunder Bay singled to lead off the inning. A bunt to advance the runner later, and the tying run was on second base. A single up the middle had the tying run coming around third to score, but a Michael Strem (Boston College) frozen rope from center field beat the tying run to home plate and Austin Athmann (Minnesota) applied the tag to preserve the Rox one run lead. Charpie then induced a ground ball out to end the game, and the Rox escaped Thunder Bay with a 2-1 win.

On the season, the Rox moved to 3-0 against the Border Cats. The Rox and Border Cats will play game number two tomorrow night live from Tbaytel Park at 6:05 ET. 

Tonight's box score can be found online– http://northwoods.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=260382

Tonight's SC Times player of the game was Andrew Clemen. Clemen went 7 innings, giving up just 3 hits while striking out 7. For more Rox coverage, visit www.sctimes.com

You can listen to Rox games all season long online at www.1390thefan.com.