Rochester Lose 2 of 3 to St. Cloud

(Rochester, Minn.)— The Rochester Honkers dropped the third game of their weekend series against the St. Cloud Rox 6-4. Greg Jakusik (Stevens Institute) was charged with the loss after surrendering five runs in only two innings of work. Brett DeGagne (North Dakota) earned the win for St. Cloud, and Trevor Charpie (Saddleback CC) picked up the save.

The Honkers took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning as Adam Walton (Illinois) stole third to put himself in position to score on William Paschal’s (Georgia Gwinnett) RBI single.

Joe DeRoche-Duffin (UCONN) extended his hit streak to 10 games with a single in the third inning. Matt Fiedler (Minnesota) would follow Duffin’s single with his second homerun of the year with two outs to give Rochester a 3-0 lead.

Bram Grooten (Wentworth Institute) get his second hit of the season, an RBI single in the fourth that scored Paschal to give the Honkers a 4-0 lead.

St. Cloud broke through in the fifth against Honkers’ starter Jordan Gross (Tulane) for a run to cut into the Honkers lead, and tacked on two more in the sixth inning to make it 4-3.

The Rox took the lead in the seventh on a three-run homerun after they hit five total bombs in the double header on Saturday night, putting the Honkers in a 6-4 hole that they would be unable to overcome.

Rochester and St. Cloud split Saturday’s doubleheader, giving the Rox the series 2-1. The Honkers now sit at 7-5 in the second half, tied for third in the North division with Willmar, and trailing first place St. Cloud by 2.5 games. The Honkers are also in third place in the division overall, trailing Willmar and St. Cloud.

The Honkers will hit the road again for a three game road trip that will take them to Mankato for one game and to Thunder Bay for a two game series. They will be back home on Thursday, July 16th to take on the Willmar Stingers.