St. Cloud Rox vs. Minot Hot Tots

June 8 & 9

Joe Faber Field (St. Cloud, Minnesota)

Monday, June 8 – 6:35 p.m. 

Pitching: LHP Ethan Felling (2-0, 1.04 ERA) vs. RHP Kahler Key (1-0, 3.00 ERA)

Watch: FloSports 

Listen: 93.9FM/1390 AM Granite City Sports Radio 

Tuesday, June 9 – 6:35 p.m. 

Pitching: RHP Josiah Peterson (0-0, 9.00 ERA)  vs. RHP Christian Henderson (0-0, 4.66 ERA)

Watch: FloSports 

Listen: 93.9FM/1390 AM Granite City Sports Radio 

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. 

After a four-game series between the Rox and Hot Tots at Corbett Field in Minot, N.D., the two teams head to St. Cloud together for a pair of games at Joe Faber Field. The Rox won three of the four in Minot, outscoring the Hot Tots 44-11. The lone victory for the Hot Tots came on a walk-off in 10 innings to win 4-3. All four runs by Minot came in the final three innings.

 

Felling Gets First Start

After working his first five outings out of the bullpen, left-hander Ethan Felling has been tabbed for his first starting assignment with the St. Cloud Rox, and his first in his collegiate career. Felling has thrown 8.2 innings allowing just one earned run and has struck out 38% of the batters he has faced (15 out of 40). He pitched two innings in Thursday’s win over Minot, walking two and striking out three.

Felling comes from the University of Minnesota, where he made four appearances and surrendered five runs this spring in 2.1 innings of work.

Welcome Home, Studd

After joining the team in Minot, these will be the first home games for Field Manager Nick Studdard in 300 days. Studdard begins year six with the Rox, and year three as the acting field manager.

Studdard also brings along hitting coach Beau Kirsch, another assistant with the LSU-Eunice Bengals. As this is Kirsch’s first season in St. Cloud, it is his first trip to the Rockpile.

Student Becomes Master

The Field Manager for the Minot Hot Tots is Brian Lewis. Lewis has 13 years under his belt in the Northwoods League, including a tenure with St. Cloud. When Lewis was the Field Manager for the Rox, he coached the team to their second straight 50-win season in 2022, and was assisted by none other than Nick Studdard.

Homeward Bound

This short homestand makes just the fifth and sixth games at the Rockpile this year, in comparison to their ten games completed on the road.  The Rox are 3-1 at home, and 8-2 in enemy territory in this young season. Only the Lakeshore Chinooks (3) and Wisconsin Rapids Rafters (3) have less home games to this point.

 

Back with a Vengeance

In games after a loss, the Rox are averaging 12 runs a game. The Rox scored eight against Badlands, then 15 and 13 on the Hot Tots, all coming after their league-low three losses.

Levels to This

The Rox offense has been humming to start the campaign, rising to the top of the Northwoods League pond. 

St. Cloud is a top-five team across the Northwoods League in batting average (4th), runs (2nd), hits (2nd), runs batted in (2nd), walks (2nd), stolen bases (4th), and on-base plus slugging (4th).

Rox Starters Shoving

The Rox have received particularly strong starts from three members of its pitching staff, and all but one of them had recent collegiate pitching experience.

Right-hander Brock Toney had a small amount of starting experience a few years back, but none at his current school of Grand Canyon. Since arriving in St. Cloud, Toney has started two games and went four innings in each start and has yet to allow a run. His first start with the Rox he did not allow a hit against Bismarck, and in his second start, he struck out eight Hot Tots.

Right-hander Tyler Phenow had not made a start since high school until his outing on Friday, and twirled seven innings of three-hit scoreless baseball in a very tight game against Minot. Phenow has not allowed a run in 8.2 innings and has only allowed a total of four baserunners.

Right-hander Hunter Poe has been “Steady Eddy” in the Rox rotation. After a bumpy first start on Opening Day, he delivered 6.1 innings against the Willmar Stingers in an offensive-heavy game that saw 15 total runs get scored in the game. Poe channeled that durability into his third start on Sunday, where he shut down the Hot Tots for eight innings, allowing just one run on five hits with five strikeouts. Poe was McMurry University’s best starter this past spring, and has continued his success in St. Cloud through the first two weeks.

Sitting Pretty

After the Sunday victory in Minot, the Rox advance to 11-3, a comfortable lead in the Great Plains West. With Minot’s loss, every other team in the division is at .500 or lower. 

St. Cloud’s 11-3 record is the best total across the Northwoods League. The La Crosse Loggers, Kalamazoo Growlers, and Wausau Woodchucks are the closest pursuers.

About Faber Field  

Joe Faber Field is located on the west side 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: St. Cloud has a day off on June 10 before a two-game series in Ontario to take on the Thunder Bay Border Cats. When they head back to the states, they’ll battle the Willmar Stingers in another four-game series.

As for the Minot Hot Tots, they have the 10th off, but will stay in Minnesota to battle the Duluth Huskies in two games, then travel to Dickinson, ND, for two against the Big Sticks, wrapping up the road trip with a home-and-home pair against the Bismarck Larks.