Rox Wrap Up First Half With Sweep, Return Home Tuesday Night

The St. Cloud Rox wrapped up the first half of the Northwoods League season with a convincing 10-4 win over the Rochester Honkers at Mayo Field. The Rox finish the half as Great Plains West Division champions and clinch a spot in the postseason, which begins on August 10th.

In Monday's game, the Rox jumped out to an 8-2 lead after three innings and rode a solid Riane Ritter performance on the mound to cruise to the win.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION 

Dominic Smaldino started the scoring with an RBI groundout in the top of the first inning, followed by a run-scoring single from Carter Jorissen to make the score 2-0.

The Rox added to their lead in the top of the second with a Brenden Stressler RBI single, a run on a wild pitch and another RBI groundout to make the score 5-1 after two innings.

The early-inning onslaught continued in the third for St. Cloud with a Matthew Maulik RBI single and a two-run double from Stressler.

SOLID PITCHING 

The Rox were buoyed by a steady pitching performance from Riane Ritter, who ran his record to 5-0 on the season with 5.2 innings of work in which he struck out seven batters.

BACK HOME AGAIN 

St. Cloud returns home to Joe Faber Field Tuesday night for a two-game homestand against the Minot Hot Tots. Tuesday's game gets underway at 6:35 p.m. and Wednesday's game at 7:05 p.m..

Rox baseball can be heard all season long on AM 1390 and FM 93.9 Granite City Sports.