ST. CLOUD ROX vs. MINOT HOT TOTS

August 7 – August 8

Joe Faber Field (St. Cloud, Minnesota)

St. Cloud Rox – 40-27, 16-15 second half

Minot Hot Tots – 26-42, 13-19 second half

 

Friday, August 7 – 7:05 p.m. 

Pitching: TBA vs. TBA 

Watch: FloSports 

Listen: 93.9FM/1390 AM Granite City Sports Radio 

Promotion: Friday Night Fireworks + Launch-A-Ball. (Baseball’s version of Chuck-a-Puck) Fans will have an opportunity to purchase balls to toss on the field after the game for a chance to win $200 in Scheels gift cards. Proceeds benefit Sauk Rapids Youth Baseball.

Saturday, August 8 – 6:35 p.m. 

Pitching: TBA vs. TBA 

Watch: FloSports 

Listen: 93.9FM/1390 AM Granite City Sports Radio 

Promotion: Fan Appreciation Night. Great Prizes Will Be Given Away Throughout the Game. First 75 active Military Members or Veterans with valid ID or Military discharge papers who purchase a ticket to the game will receive a Rox hat. (Advance ticket purchase only, not day of game). Presented by the Vein Center

 

Follow the Game  

• Follow along to every Northwoods League game on the NWL scoreboard, and get up to the minute information with the Play-by-Play feature.  

• All matchups, home and away, can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription.  

• Every game of the 2026 season can be heard on 93.9FM and 1390AM Granite City Sports Radio, and on the Granite City Sports website. Dylan Budd, Danny Berg, and Riley Klaus call every game from the Eide Chrysler St. Cloud Studios. 

 

St. Cloud vs. Minot

•  Saturday will mark the 43st meeting between the Rox and the Hot Tots, one of the newest teams in the Northwoods League. 

• The Rox and Hot Tots played in a six-game series in early June, with St. Cloud winning three of four at Corbett Field, and a two-game series split at Joe Faber Field. In Watford City, the series was also split.

• The two teams met again on June 20 and 21 in St. Cloud, with the Rox winning both games in strong fashion. 

• St. Cloud has won 35 of the 42 previous matchups, including posting 11-1 records each of the last two seasons. 
• The Rox have won 17 of the 22 games as the road team in the series history. 

Recounting Mankato

The Rox completed a four-game series with the Mankato Moondogs.

St. Cloud was victorious in game one in dominating fashion, winning 14-5 and ushering out starter Kaeden Guida in less than an inning. The Rox starter, Emerson McKnight, earned his third Northwoods League Pitcher of the Night honor, striking out a season-high 11 in five innings, with two runs under his watch. The next day, the battle moved to ISG Field, where the Moondogs found their revenge with an 11-8 win. St. Cloud found themselves down 9-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, and rallied with a bat-around to put the lead within one, topped off with a Nolan Geislinger steal home. Mankato tacked on two more runs in the next frame, and held on for the win. Wednesday pitted the two back at the Rockpile, with Mankato finding another margin, this time 9-6. The Rox used six arms that evening, but on the offensive end, Aidan Mouton was a triple away from the cycle, ending 3-6 with two runs, a double, a home run, and an RBI. The Moondogs closed the series with a 5-2 win on Thursday.  

Stingers Set In Stone

With a win against the Badlands Big Sticks on Wednesday, the Willmar Stingers have clinched a playoff berth, meaning they will take on the Rox in the first round of the postseason. The Rox won seven of their twelve games against the bees within the regular season.

Rox against the Northwoods League 

The Rox close out the regular season among the top of these statistics.

Offense 

• Batting Average (.275, 4th)
• Runs (511, 4th)
• Hits (616, 3rd)
• Triples (16, 4th)
• RBI (433, 5th)
• Walks (475, 2nd)
• HBP (132, 1st)
• Stolen Bases (283, 1st)
• On-base percentage (.423, 1st)
• OPS (.792, 7th)

Pitching 

• ERA (4.90, 6th)
• Wins (40, 7th)
• Strikeouts (633, 3rd)
• First pitch strike percentage (57.2%, 4th)

Torching the Tots

 Multiple Rox have found offensive success against the Hot Tots, including;

• More often than not, Colton Rother gets on against Minot, batting .600 with four RBI and an OPS of 1.367.
• Brett White chases behind Rother with a .429 average, three extra base hits, and an OPS just behind at 1.244.
• Nolan Geislinger: an 8-21 rate against the Tots, the on-base machine has forced 11 free passes, swiping ten bags in the process. His sole homer left the yard of Corbett Field.
• Jaixen Frost: the Hawkeye is 3-7 with two runs and two more batted in, totalling an OPS at 1.016.

Rox Records 

With six games to play for St. Cloud, there are multiple records that are within reach for the Rox to potentially match or even break. The Rox broke their single season runs record and walks mark in consecutive days, both against Mankato on August 3 and 4. The records listed below do include statistics recorded in playoff games. 

• Runs batted in 

• Current: 433

• Record: 455, 2024 

• On-base percentage 

• Current: .423

• Record: .391, 2024 

• On-base plus slugging (OPS) 

• Current: .792

• Record: .791, 2024 

• Strikeouts (pitching) 

• Current: 633

• Record: 695, 2023 

 

Recchio’s Records 

Utility man Tanner Recchio is known for his speed, and his speed has killed opponents in their game planning. He looks to continue to make his mark on the Rox record books, seven runs away from breaking the league single season runs record, 80 from Mason McCoy in 2015, an accolade whose career-long counterpart already belongs to Recchio.

In the late game of the July 23 double-header against Thunder Bay, Recchio stole his 67th base of the 2026 season, officially tying him with Larry Edwards’ mark that he set last season. Recchio accomplished the feat in 51 games, while Edwards needed 69 to reach it last year. One day later, on July 24, Recchio officially took the record for himself when he stole second base in the sixth inning. 

After setting the new Rox single-season stolen base record at 34 last season, Recchio surpassed that number on July 3 by taking his 35th base of the season. He needed 44 games to steal 34 bases in 2025 and needed just 35 games this year to take 35 bases. 

He broke the NWL stolen base mark on June 21, swiping his 91st career bag against the Minot Hot Tots. Recchio stole 34 bases apiece in 2023 with the Minnesota Mud Puppies and in 2025 with St. Cloud. 

Recchio has become the third St. Cloud player to be in the Northwoods League record book. Chris DeMara recorded four shutouts in 2001, and Britt Carmicheal pitched 80 games from 1997 to 1999. 

 

Rox Break Team Records

Known for running their opponents into the ground by using their speed, the Rox are in pursuit of positioning themselves as one of the fastest teams ever in the Northwoods League. 

The Rox broke the single-season stolen base record for one team in the Northwoods League on July 26 with their 252nd stolen base, clinched against the Mankato MoonDogs. St. Cloud only needed 58 games to break the record, averaging 4.5 stolen bases per game. 

The 2024 Willmar Stingers previously held the top spot on their own with 251 steals back in 2024, one-upping their previous record of 247 in 2023. 

St. Cloud is on pace to not just break the Stingers’ record, but shatter it. The Rox are currently projected to finish with close to 300 stolen bases by season’s end. 

 

Rox to the Pros 

The 2026 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was held on July 11 and 12 for eligible high school and college prospects to enter the professional ranks. A total of seven former Rox players were drafted by one of the 30 MLB teams. 

• Tyson LeBlanc (Kansas): Round 2, Pick 61 to the Detroit Tigers 

• Kade Lewis (Wake Forest): Round 4, Pick 132 to the Cleveland Guardians 

• Brady Ballinger (Kansas): Round 7, Pick 216 to the Detroit Tigers 

• Marcus Kruzan (Minnesota): Round 12, Pick 371 to the Milwaukee Brewers 

• Dallis Moran (Stetson): Round 16, Pick 474 to the St. Louis Cardinals 

• Weber Neels (Minnesota): Round 19, Pick 566 to the Arizona Diamondbacks 

• J.P. Robertson (Mississippi): Round 20, Pick 598 to the San Francisco Giants 

Additionally, the Rox had two pitchers on their 2026 roster earn undrafted free agent contracts post-All Star break. 

Righty Brady Stuart earned a contract with the Los Angeles Angels on July 16. Stuart pitched in three games for the Rox, with his best outing being his final one, going 2.2 innings against Mankato on July 15 and striking out three. Stuart is the reigning consensus Division 3 National Pitcher of the Year amongst multiple outlets, pitching to a 1.85 ERA in 18 outings with Endicott (MA). 

Rox closer Brandon Jaenke earned a contract with the Texas Rangers on July 17. Jaenke appeared in 11 games for St. Cloud this season, not allowing a single run and giving up just seven hits while striking out 22, and recorded five saves in the process. In his Rox career, which began in 2022, he pitched in 72 games as a member of the Rox. That includes two trips to the postseason and three appearances in the All-Star Game. He sports a record of 6-2 with 24 saves in 98 innings, pitching to a 3.58 ERA. Nearly half of the outs Jaenke recorded with the Rox were strikeouts, and finished with a 13.68 K/9. 

Learn more about the draftees here. 

 

Postseason Bound 

On June 24, the Rox officially clinched the Great Plains West first half championship following an 8-3 victory over the Badlands Big Sticks. The win moved St. Cloud to 21-10 at the time and was the first team in the Northwoods League to secure a playoff spot. The La Crosse Loggers (Plains East), Madison Mallards (Lakes East), and Kenosha Kingfish (Lakes West) secured the other first half titles. 

After cruising to a divisional championship, the Rox secured the top spot in the Great Plains on the final day of the first half. St. Cloud entered June 29 down 10 winning percentage points to La Crosse, and after a Rox 9-4 win over Bismarck and a 17-5 Loggers loss to Eau Claire, the Rox earned the top slot. 

2026 will mark the eighth straight summer that the Rox will be playing beyond the regular season. St. Cloud has gone 9-8 in playoff games since 2021. 

 

About Faber Field  

Joe Faber Field is located on the westside of St. Cloud in the city’s Municipal Athletic Complex.  The complex features two of the finest baseball fields in the state – Dick Putz Field and Joe Faber Field. Additionally, the complex features Veterans Public Golf Course and two ice arenas, Torrey Arena and Ritsche Arena. The park opened in 1998 and has a capacity of 2,000 people.   

  

Attend a Rox Game 

Fans can visit stcloudrox.com and hover over the drop-down “Tickets” menu on the homepage. Fans can also call 320-240-9798 for ticket information or can visit the ticket office inside the Municipal Athletic Complex’s ice arena lobby during regular business hours. 

 

Up Next  

The playoffs begin! The Rox head to Bill Taunton Stadium for game one against the Willmar Stingers. Game two, and three if needed, will transpire at the Rockpile.