Waterloo’s offense failed to support Zach Siggelkow (St. Cloud St.) as the starter stymied St. Cloud for four runs over an impressive seven-inning performance on the road.
By: Matt Gruemmer, Waterloo Bucks
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Pitching for the first time on his collegiate mound, Zach Siggelkow’s (0-2) (St. Cloud St.) strong seven-inning start was hindered by a lack of offense and two defensive errors as the Waterloo Bucks (29-35/11-17) fell 5-0 to the St. Cloud Rox (41-22/22-7) Friday night at Joe Faber Field.
Despite a collection of six hits throughout the contest, Waterloo failed to string together a scoring inning while leaving four men on base and hitting into a pair of double plays en route their seventh consecutive loss.
Taylor Boyd (St. Joseph’s) led the Bucks in the box with a double and single in three at-bats while Mikal Hill (Winston-Salem St.) continued to stay hot with two singles in his first two trips to the box. Zach Pop (Kentucky) started for the Rox and teamed up with Erik Martinez (California) on the rubber to shut down Waterloo while John Sansone (Florida St.) was a home run shy of the cycle in the series sweep.
St. Cloud registered the go-ahead run in the bottom of the first inning when Liam Bedford (Doane) drove in Lee Miller (Davidson) with an RBI-ground out to shortstop. John Sansone (Florida St.) doubled Miller into scoring position with the first of his three hits in the win.
A throwing error from Taylor Lane (Florida) to first base on a Connor Crane (McNeese St.) ground ball cost Waterloo a run in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Sansone struck again for the Rox with a run-scoring triple to the wall in left-center field for the 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, lead-off singles by both Brandon Benson (Georgia College & State) and Crane led to a 4-0 St. Cloud lead. Siggelkow allowed Benson to get to third on an errant pickoff move while a communication error by Tim Millard (Dallas Baptist) on Crane’s drive made it a three-run game. Then, a two-out Sansone single sent Crane across home plate to mark the Seminole hitter’s second RBI of the night.
Siggelkow exited after a monumental swinging strikeout of Sansone that ended the bottom of the seventh. The lefty put together a quality start of four runs given up, two earned, on six hits along with two walks and three strikeouts.
Eric Brown (Gettysburg) took over in the bottom of the eighth, and after surrendering a run while walking the bases loaded, escaped a jam with a 6-4-3 twin killing provided by his defense. The right-hander gave up one earned run in his one frame of work off Benson’s single to right field along with three consecutive walks.
The Bucks went down in order on back-to-back strikeouts in the top of the ninth to take a 6-2 season-series loss with the Rox.
Waterloo opens their final two-game series of the year with the Blue Anchors in Alexandria for games on August 1 and 2 starting at 5:05 p.m. (CST).
The Bucks return home Monday, August 3 with a 7:05 PM (CST) battle with the Thunder Bay Border Cats. It will be the final Buck Monday home game where fans get regular hot dogs for just $1.50, plus 10 oz. draft beer, 12 oz. sodas, small popcorn, and ice cream sandwiches are just $1 each! Sponsored by K98.5.
Tickets are available at waterloobucks.com. You can also visit the Bucks Ticket Office at Riverfront Stadium or call (319)-232-5633.
Bucks’ games are broadcast live on waterloobucks.com.
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The Waterloo Bucks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2015, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 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, more than 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (WAS), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (OAK). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website. For more information, visit www.waterloobucks.com.