St. Cloud, MN– Ben Dotzler (Creighton) pitched eight innings of shutout baseball and gave up three hits as St. Cloud (32-19) swept Duluth (23-29) on Sunday by a score of 1-0. The Rox have won nine of their last ten games.

The first seven innings were dominated by the pitching and defense. Dotzler struck out four batters in the win on the mound, throwing less than 100 pitches. The Rox defense also turned three double plays.

Small ball was the key for St. Cloud in the bottom of the eighth inning to break the scoreless tie. Hance Smith (California-Berkeley) led off with a bunt down the third base line. Alex Tappen, the Huskies third baseman, fielded the ball and airmailed the first baseman, allowing Smith to take second base on the error. In the next at-bat, Ben Carew (Kent State) bunted down the third base line and Tappen proceeded to throw low to the first baseman Guzman, who didn’t make a clean play and allowed Smith to score on the error to go ahead 1-0.

Max Rippl (Kent State) pitched two thirds of the ninth inning. Justin Wick (Creighton) recorded the final out and earned the save.

The Rox now open a two-game road series against the Waterloo Bucks at 6:35 pm. The games will be played at Riverfront Stadium.

For the full box score from Sunday’s game, click here.

St. Cloud is back home on Thursday, July 24th against the Bismarck Larks at 7:05 p.m. It’s Mental Health Awareness Night presented by Marco Technologies. The Rox will be wearing special jerseys that will be sold through an online auction with the proceeds going to CentraCare’s Suicide Prevention Program. Text ROX to 555888 to bid on them now. Plus, National Entertainment Act and America’s Biggest Ballpark Prankster BirdZerk is back to entertain the crowd.

All single games tickets 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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