Battle Creek, MI — The Northwoods League season came to a close Saturday, and by the end of the night the St. Cloud Rox stood alone at the top as the best team in the league. In Game 3 of the Summer Collegiate World Series, the Rox used solid pitching and a 4 run inning to propel themselves to a 5-3 win.

Jake Stevenson (Minnesota) started on the mound and set the tone early. He went nearly 6 innings, and put up 4 scoreless frames to start the final game of the season. It set up his team at the plate to take a big lead in the 5th. All 4 runs came across with 2 outs in the inning. The rally started after Mason Mamarella (Kent State) and Shelby Lackey (Pacific) reached base safely. Then, Ricardo Sanchez (Arkansas Pine-Bluff) continued his stellar playoff campaign and drove in his 4th run in the World Series with a single up the middle. 

Keaton Kringlen (BYU) had an RBI single and Matthew Tarantino (Pacific) followed that with a ground-rule double with the bases loaded. Cameron Eden (Cal) smacked his 5th home run of the season and the Rox would cap their scoring there.

Nick Morreale (Georgetown) and Jackson Rose (Minnesota) shut it down out of the bullpen with 3 scoreless frames. Rose got the final out of the 8th and put the Bombers down in order in the 9th to earn his 1st save of the season. 

After falling short in both 2015 and 2016 in the playoffs the Rox won the Northwoods League championship after a dominant 1st half and clutch play-making in the postseason. St. Cloud finishes the playoffs at 4-1 and ends the 2017 campaign with 46 wins.

Game 3 Box Score. 

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate 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, 180 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two- time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.stcloudrox.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rox as your favorite team.