Rochester, MN – Andrew Garcia (Cal State-San Marcos) belted the first home run of the Rox 2019 season, but St. Cloud (0-1) dropped the first game of the season 7-5 at Rochester. The Rox were 8-8 on stolen base attempts.

The scoring began in the top of the third inning when Garcia drilled a home run over the wall in left field to tie the game at one.

After falling behind 5-1 in the fourth inning, the Rox responded with three consecutive scoring innings to tie the game at five. In the top of the fifth inning, Thomas Delgadillo (Academy of Art) singled to left field, scoring Ben Carew (Kent State). The following inning, Trent Brown (Oklahoma) hit a sac-fly to center field that brought home Freddy Achecar (Georgetown). In the seventh inning, Tyler Finke (Southeastern Louisiana) singled and scored Carew. Later in the inning, Achecar drilled an RBI to left field.

RJ Martinez (Minot State) got the start on the mound, hurling three innings. Blake Stelzer (Concordia-St. Paul) was terrific in relief, throwing three innings and striking out three batters. Max Rippl (Kent State) and Joey Stock (St. Johns) also saw work out of the bullpen.

St. Cloud will finish their two-game road series against Rochester on Wednesday, May 29 with a 12:35 first pitch time. They will then travel to Waterloo for a two-game series before returning home for their home opener on Saturday, June 1.

The Rox home opener is Saturday, June 1 at 7:05 p.m., featuring post-game fireworks presented by Coborn’s. To view and download the full 2019 Rox schedule, click here.

All single games tickets – including to the home opener – can be purchased now in person at the Rox Ticket Office located at the Municipal Athletic Complex, by calling the Rox Ticket office at 320-240-9798 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or 24 hours a day by visiting www.stcloudrox.com.

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 25-year old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 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, over 200 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 (MIA).  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.

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