St. Cloud, MN – The St. Cloud Rox opened up a six-game homestand at the Rock Pile with a bang against the Willmar Stingers on Summertime St. Patty’s Night on Saturday night.

Behind back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning, St. Cloud took the first game of a two-game weekend series with Willmar by a score of 6-4. The Rox have now won four of their last five games.

The Rox got on the board in the bottom of the third inning when Ryan Davis (Georgetown) singled home Gus Steiger (South Dakota State). Adding another run in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly off the bat of Connor Aube (Texas at Arlington), St. Cloud blew the game open in the fifth inning with a pair of home runs.

Ricardo Sanchez (Arkansas at Pine Bluff) kicked the big inning off by hit a towering home run to right field that extended the Rox lead to 3-1. A few pitches later, Ryan Weisenberg (Georgetown) followed Sanchez with a solo shot of his own, recording back-to-back home runs.

After Willmar evened things up at 4-4 in the sixth inning, St. Cloud once again responded, scoring two more runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for good. Noah Hill (BYU) brought home the go-ahead run with an RBI single, with Davis bringing home an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

Sanchez and Weisenberg each finished 1-for-4 with solo home runs, while Davis finished 1-for-3 with two RBI to lead the Rox. Hill went 2-for-3 with one RBI, Bobby Seymour (Wake Forest) and Ryland Kerr (Eastern Kentucky) each went 2-for-4 with a run scored and Steiger went 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Zach Lauzon (Concordia-St. Paul) pitched the first 5.2 innings on the mound for St. Cloud, earning a no-decision. He gave up four runs and struck out two. Kyle Richardson (Texas A&M) pitched 1.1 shutout innings in relief to grab the win, striking out three. 2018 Northwoods League All-Star Finn Del Bonta-Smith (San Jose State) pitched one shutout inning to pick up his fourth save of the season.

St. Cloud (6-5 second half, 22-25 overall) returns to action at 4:05 p.m. Sunday back at the Rock Pile against Willmar. The game will be Pink in the Park Day presented by Center for Diagnostic Imaging, where the Rox will be wearing special pink jerseys that are being auctioned off online with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. The game is also Coborn’s Kids’ Day, where kids will have the opportunity to run the bases and get autographs on the field after the game.

The Rox are in their seventh season of Northwoods League Baseball in 2018. Single game and group tickets for the entire season are on sale now. For more information on purchasing tickets, visit the Rox Ticket Office on the west end of the Municipal Athletic Complex, call 320-240-9798 or visit www.stcloudrox.com.

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods 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, more than 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR).  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.