St. Cloud, MN – In a league-wide doubleheader day in the Northwoods League, the St. Cloud Rox returned home to the Rock Pile on Wednesday night in Game 2 of a home-and-home series with the Mankato MoonDogs.

Ricardo Sanchez (Arkansas at Pine Bluff) belted his third home run of the season to lead St. Cloud, but the Rox late-game comeback attempt fell short in 10 innings against the MoonDogs, 5-4.

Down 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, Connor Aube (Texas at Arlington) nearly won the game for St. Cloud, coming inches away from a walk-off home run to left field, but he ended up driving home the game-tying run to force extra innings. Mankato went on to score one run in the 10th inning to jump in front.

Sanchez, who finished 2-for-5 with one RBI in the game, got the Rox on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning after hitting a solo shot to right field. St. Cloud tallied two runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and one in the ninth in the game. Along with Sanchez, Aube went 1-for-5 with one RBI, Ben Carew (Kent State) went 2-for-3 with one run scored, Jack Barrie (Reinhardt) finished 2-for-4 with one run scored and Ryland Kerr (Eastern Kentucky) added one hit and one RBI.

Kenny Saenz (BYU) got the start on the mound for St. Cloud, pitching five innings. He gave up three hits, two runs and struck out five. Joey Stock (St. John’s) pitched two innings in relief, while Jake Suddreth (BYU) threw 2.1 innings and Finn Del Bonta-Smith (San Jose State) pitched the final 0.2 innings.

St. Cloud (13-13 second half, 29-33 overall) will hit the road for two games in Rochester on Thursday and Friday. The Rox will return home to the Rock Pile for a weekend series against Waterloo, facing the Bucks at 6:05 p.m. Saturday and 4:05 p.m. Sunday.

Saturday’s game will be Hometown Heroes Night and Championship Chisel Bobblehead Giveaway night presented by Capital One. Five local heroes will be recognized as part of Hometown Heroes Night, while the first 400 fans will receive a token to be redeemed for a bobblehead after the fifth inning as part of the Championship Chisel Bobblehead Giveaway. Sunday’s game will be Hot Dog Hundo Night presented by Manea’s Meats, where fans will have the chance to win cash prizes up to $100 by purchasing a hot dog from the main concessions stand. It will also be a Coborn’s Kids Day, where kids will have the opportunity to run the bases and get autographs on the field after the game.

To get tickets to the weekend series and for the rest of the regular season, click here.

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.