St. Cloud, MN– St. Cloud (41-27) closed the regular season at the Rock Pile on Friday, dropping a close 8-4 game to Rochester (37-33). With Mankato’s loss to Willmar, the Rox magic number to clinch a playoff berth is two games.

In the fifth inning, Ben Carew (Kent State) delivered with a clutch base hit. He crushed a ground ball up the middle that was stopped by the shortstop, but his throw was low and caused an error by the first baseman. He was credited with an RBI, scoring Freddy Achecar (Georgetown) from third base and Parker Smejkal (Nebraska-Omaha) from second base on an error.

Down 8-2 in the eighth inning, Garett Delano (Brown) scored Lenny Walker (St. Cloud State) on a sac-fly to right field. On the same play, the right fielder threw to the cutoff in the infield, who tried to throw out Carew at third base. The throw got away from the third baseman, allowing Carew to score on an error.

Nick Desalvo (LIU-Brooklyn) started the game and tossed 3.1 innings. JT Barnes (Hardin-Simmons), Rhyse Dee (Wake Forest), Daniel Montgomery Jr. (Southwesterrn) and Hance Smith (California-Berkeley) all saw time out of the bullpen.

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

St. Cloud now opens a three-game road series with Thunder Bay. The Rox will play a doubleheader at Port Arthur Stadium at 4:30 and 6:30 on Saturday. Two wins against the Border Cats would clinch the second half title of the Great Plains West Division.

All single games tickets can be purchased 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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