St. Cloud, MN – In the regular-season finale on Saturday night, St. Cloud (50-18) fell to the Minnesota Mud Puppies (10-26) and posted the second-best record in Northwoods League history.

Now, the Rox look forward to their first round of the playoffs, playing a three-game series with the Mankato MoonDogs which begins on Sunday. St. Cloud will play on the road Sunday before playing all of its remaining playoff games from the friendly confines of Joe Faber Field.

Joe Battaglia (Southern University) earned his first start of the season on Saturday and made the most of it. Battaglia threw seven innings and kept the Rox in the game late, only allowing two hits and striking out six batters.

It took until the seventh inning for the bats to finally get rolling, but Justin Kirby (Kent State) got the Rox on the board with a solo home run to left field. Kirby had no home runs heading into the final series of the season and ended the season with two.

After the deficit grew in the ninth, Jack Steil (Nebraska) started a Rox rally with his fifth home run of the season. Then, Peter Abinanti (San Diego) brought in a run with his third hit of the day. Abinanti has hits in all 17 games he’s started this season and has an on-base percentage over .500.

For a full box score from Saturday’s game, click here.

First pitch in the Rox’ playoff opener at ISG Field is scheduled for 5:05 pm. Then, the series with the MoonDogs will shift back to St. Cloud with first pitch on Monday scheduled for 7:05 pm.

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 27^th season, the Northwoods 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 250 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB Gold Glove finalist and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. 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.