Waterloo, Iowa– The Waterloo Bucks (1-0) came back and held on to defeat the St. Cloud Rox (0-1) 5-4 on opening night.
St. Cloud started off the scoring in 2017 with a two-run double down the left field line by Matt Tarantino in the bottom of the third inning.
The Rox struck again in the top of the fifth on a single to left field off of the best of Cameron Blaquiere to make it 3-0 St. Cloud. The base knock ended the night for Waterloo starting pitcher Jared Crescentini who lasted four innings, surrendered three earned runs, gave up five hits and struck out six batters.
From there, the bullpen took over for the Bucks with Zach Siggelkow (1-0) going two innings, striking out two batters and he worked out of two jams.
Rox starter Jack Cushing had the Bucks figured out as he threw five innings, struck out nine batters and didn’t let up any runs. Waterloo was trailing 3-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when St. Cloud reliever Louis Pugliese (0-1) loaded up the bases and walked Deion Thompson for the first Buck run on 2017. Brent Killiam inherited a bases loaded jam but balked allowing another Waterloo run to score with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. The same batter, Ben Sellers grounded a base hit up the middle over the second base bag that plated the tying and go ahead runs making it 4-3
Jay Schuyler added a crucial insurance run with an RBI single to right field in the bottom of the seventh to add to the 5-3 Buck advantage.
Alec Hernandez (1) came in for the save in the top of the ninth and he surrendered an RBI double to Eric Feliz. Feliz served as the game tying run at second but Hernandez recovered with a strikeout to shut the door.
The Bucks are back in action tomorrow against the Rox at 6:35 p.m. at Riverfront Stadium on Belly Buster Wednesday. $20 gets you in the game and onto the Budweiser Party Deck. $15 upgrades available at the Ticket Window if you have already purchased a ticket for the game. All you can eat and drink starts 30 minutes prior to first pitch and lasts for 2 hours.
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The Waterloo Bucks are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 23-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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 160 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.waterloobucks.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Bucks as your favorite team.
