Mankato, MN – St. Cloud (0-2) lost in walk-off fashion, 2-1,  to Mankato (4-0) on Thursday night as James Shimishita drove in Matthew Higgins with a single to right-center field.

Thursday’s T-Mobile Player of the Game was outfield Nate Swarts who led the offense for the Rox with two hits­, including an RBI single in the eighth to tie the game at one.

Mankato started the scoring in the fourth inning. Higgins doubled to lead off the frame and was driven in two batters later on a Spencer Nivens groundout to shortstop. The MoonDogs wouldn’t score again until the ninth.

The Rox pitching staff followed up its strong start on Wednesday with a phenomenal performance. Bryce Robison started with the ball and went five innings, giving up just the one run on three hits with seven strikeouts.

Nate Peterson followed up with two perfect innings out of the pen, adding three strikeouts while touching the mid-90’s from the left side.

Offensively, the Rox tripled their hit total from Wednesday with nine, including two-hit days from Swarts, Dylan Nedved and Tyson Fisher.

The Rox head back to the Rock Pile on Friday for the home-opener against the Duluth Huskies with first pitch at 7:05 pm and a fireworks show following the game.

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.