St. Cloud, Minn. – The St. Cloud Rox completed the sweep of the Waterloo Bucks as they defeated them 5-0 in front of a crowd of 1,892 at the Rock Pile in St. Cloud

Zach Pop (University of Kentucky) started on the mound for the Rox. He would go a dominant 6.0 innings where he struck out five batters, scattered five hits and did not allow a run.

With the win Friday night, Pop improves to 5-2 on the season along with a 2.55 ERA. In 49.1 innings, Pope has struck out 40 batters.

The St. Cloud offense would come to life right away in the first inning when Lee Miller (Davidson College) would score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Liam Bedford (Doane College).

John Sansone (Florida State University) would triple in the third inning, scoring Connor Crane (McNeese State).

The Rox would score two runs in the fifth inning, starting when Brandon Benson (Georgia College) would score on a Crane single. Shortly after that Sansone would score Crane with a single.

Erik Martinez (Cal Berkeley) would come in for 3.0 innings of relief where he only surrendered one hit and struck out four batters. Martinez now has a 2.07 ERA and has pitched 26 innings of relief for the Rox along with 31 strikeouts.

Benson would drive in Michael Strem (Boston College) in the eighth inning with a double that would cap off the scoring for the Rox.

Sansone would fall a homerun short of the cycle as he went 3-4 with two RBIs. He is now batting .314 on the season with five homeruns, 17 RBIs and has scored 23 runs.

St. Cloud is now 8-2 in their last 10 games.

The Rox are now 22-7 in the second half and 41-22 overall. St. Cloud leads the second half North Division standings by three and a half games over Duluth.

The Rox will travel to Willmar tomorrow as they start a three-game series versus the Stingers starting at 7:05 p.m.

St. Cloud will finish that series with Willmar with two seven-inning games on Sunday, August 2^nd. The first game will start at 5:05 p.m. and the second game will start 30 minutes after the first game has concluded. It will be the second Annual Guns and Hoses Night presented by Firehouse Subs. A night to recognize our local Police and Firefighters. Special jersey auction to benefit the Public Safety Foundation. It will also be Coborn’s Kids’ Day. Kids can run the bases and get autographs on the field after the game.

Tonight’s St. Cloud Times Player of the Game is starting pitcher Zach Pop after his shutout performance. For more coverage of the Rox during the 2015 season visit www.sctimes.com.

For more stats and information about tonight’s game, here is the boxscore:

http://northwoods.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=260608

Single game tickets can be purchased 24 hours a day at www.stcloudrox.com, by calling (320) 240-9798 or by visiting the Rox ticket office located at the Municipal Athletic Complex.

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22^nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest summer collegiate 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 (KC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website.  For more information, visit www.stcloudrox.com.