Rox Rally to Walk off Rochester in the Ninth

June 10, 2021 - Northwoods League (Northwoods)
St. Cloud Rox News Release

St. Cloud Rox at the plate
(St. Cloud Rox)

St. Cloud, MN - In a second night of late-inning magic, St. Cloud (4-4) strung together enough late hits to beat Rochester (4-6), 2-1, in walk-off fashion.

With runners on first and second and just one out in the bottom of the ninth, Jordan Barth (Augustana) stepped to the plate in a 1-1 ballgame. The third year returner hit a groundball to third base which took a high hop and rolled into left field. Nate Swarts (Washington State) came around to score from second and completed the Rox sweep of the Honkers.

In both games of the two-game series, the Rox came from behind late and, with some late theatrics, were able to pull off two huge wins. This victory puts the Rox back at .500 on the young season. St. Cloud has already swept two of its first four series to start off the 2021 summer.

The Rox lineup accounted for seven hits on the day, including another big outing from Chris Esposito (Nebraska-Omaha). Esposito added an RBI triple and a double to his stat line on Wednesday night, completing the series with four extra-base hits and two huge RBI's.

Esposito leads the Rox with his .391 batting average after stringing together three consecutive multi-hit games. Adding all of these extra-base hits to the equation also puts Esposito in second in the entire Northwoods League with a .739 slugging percentage.

St. Cloud's pitching bounced back from Tuesday's seven-run game to hold the Honkers to just one run on five hits. Johnny Dow (Georgia State) made his second start of the season and had his best stuff, throwing seven innings of one-run ball and striking out seven Honkers.

Andrew Morones (San Joaquin Delta) came out of the pen for the second time this season and earned his first win of the summer. He went two near-perfect innings, retiring six of the seven batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings.

For a full box score from tonight's game, click here.

The Rox continue their seven-game homestand on Thursday night with the first of two against the Duluth Huskies. St. Cloud swept the Huskies last week in a home-and-home series to earn its first two wins of the season. First pitch will be at 7:05 pm from Joe Faber Field.

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St. Cloud Rox at the plate

Northwoods League Stories from June 10, 2021

Growlers Bullpen Folds Again as Pit Spitters Win 11-7 - Kalamazoo Growlers
Bombers Rally in the Ninth to Defeat Kokomo 10-4 - Battle Creek Battle Jacks
Woodchucks, Dock Spiders Resume Play After Delay - Wausau Woodchucks
Mallards Fail to Score in 5-0 Loss to Rafters - Madison Mallards
Pit Spitters Rally from Five Down, Score Nine Straight to Win - Traverse City Pit Spitters
Booyah Look to Bounce Back - Green Bay Rockers
Mallards Return Home to Start Home-And-Home with Rafters - Madison Mallards
Loggers Unable to Pull off Sweep of Huskies, Lose 11-7 - La Crosse Loggers
Rafters Stun Dock Spiders in 6-5 Comeback Victory - Wisconsin Rapids Rafters
Honkers Fall to St. Cloud on Walk-Off Single - Rochester Honkers
MoonDogs Split Series with Larks After 9-4 Win Wednesday - Mankato MoonDogs
Rivets Squander Early Lead, Fall to Kokomo - Rockford Rivets
Rox Rally to Walk off Rochester in the Ninth - St. Cloud Rox

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