St. Cloud (MN)  Marcus Calderon had two doubles but it wasn’t enough as the Waterloo Bucks dropped a 5-1 decision to the St. Cloud Rox at Joe Faber Field on Saturday night. A four-run sixth inning for St. Cloud was the difference as both teams received good outings from their pitchers on a cold and windy night.

Alex McRae earned the win on the bump for St. Cloud tossing seven innings, allowing only one run on two hits. Meanwhile, Bucks’ starter Eric Stout was as good, keeping Waterloo in the game after allowing a first inning run. Stout retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced after the first, through the fifth inning.

St. Cloud took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly out by Chris Paul, but failed to do any more damage after having the bases loaded with one out.

The Bucks, thanks to Stout, remained in the game despite being no-hit through four innings and would eventually break through in the fifth. Back-to-back one out doubles by Pierce Belaustegi and Calderon tied the game 1-1.  Later in the inning, with Calderon at third the Bucks thought they had taken the lead when Stout looped a ball down the left field line that appeared to hit the line but third base umpire Chris Shalm said it just missed.

Waterloo wouldn’t score again.

St. Cloud would break the tie in the sixth off Stout. Tim Colwell walked to begin the inning and would go to third base on an errant pickoff throw. He’d then score on a passed ball to put the Rox up 2-1.

The Rox added to the lead on a RBI double by Adam Martin and a two-run single by Garrett Fischer.

Waterloo reliever Steve Maher would finish the sixth inning and throw perfect seventh and eighth frames on the bump. In all, Maher retired all seven batters he faced.

With the loss, Waterloo’s record goes back to .500 at 2-2 with a chance for redemption on Sunday afternoon at 3pm at St. Cloud.