Sartell grad makes Northwoods debut in Rox victory

It’s not often a to-be collegiate freshman pitches in the Northwoods League but Tyler Phelps-Hemmesch, a member of Sartell’s class of 2023 and Minnesota commit, fanned two batters Tuesday on the mound while pumping 90s in his St. Cloud Rox debut.

“If you couldn’t tell, I was shaking a bit the first batter, but I calmed down a bit,” Phelps-Hemmesch said, saying he was encouraged by teammates like second baseman Kyle Jackson.

Phelps-Hemmesch held onto a St. Cloud lead in the seventh inning and the Rox defeated the Mankato MoonDogs 9-5, retaking their second-place spot in the Great Plains West division – five games behind Willmar (22-6).

“It happens, but not often: he’s only the third (college enrollee) that I’ve had in my 11 years in the league,” manager Brian Lewis said.

Lewis said the pitcher’s personality fit in well with the team and he “passed the eye test” in a bullpen session but, “to be quite honest with you, seeing some of those numbers on the gun tonight, they were a little more than I thought.”

Entering with the Rox (17-11) ahead 7-5 in the seventh inning, Phelps-Hemmesch walked a guy before striking out two MoonDogs (17-12) in a row using 93-94 MPH heat and his sweeping slider. Catcher Brady Prewitt, a junior from Colorado State-Pueblo, took care of the rest by gunning the the walkee trying to steal second.

Phelps-Hemmesch has been an integral part of the Sartell Sabres’ state tournament runs in the past few seasons. This year they fell in the Class 4A fifth-place game to Lakeville South on June 14. In the past couple of days in the Rox dugout Phelps-Hemmesch said he’s asked a lot of questions – “picking the brains of anybody I can.”

“There's a big difference in balls between high school and then the college or anywhere else,” Phelps-Hemmesch said. “Trying to see what works up and what works down with the laces being different and all that.”

In the ten games prior to St. Cloud’s most recent win, the Rox were 4-6, including a four-game slide starting June 23. St. Cloud broke the streak Monday, beating Mankato 4-0 but not before the MoonDogs had taken the Rox’s second-place spot in the division.

"In simple terms, we weren't getting any clutch hitting even in games we were winning there for about five, six games,” Lewis said. “We were getting the quantity of hits, but we weren't getting them at the right times and we were leaving a ton of guys on base.”

In the 10-game stretch before Tuesday, the team has only scored 2.2 runs per game other than a 15-9 outlying win over the Minnesota Mud Puppies.

All but one of the losses have been within three runs, meaning opponents haven’t scored much on Rox pitching. They have averaged a respectable seven hits per game, and the nine hits against the MoonDogs gave Lewis hope for a winning streak during a five-game homestand against the struggling La Crosse Loggers (10-18) and Minot Hot Tots (5-21). One game into the stretch, and the Rox have two Ws in a row.

“The approach changed a little bit, the relaxed a bit in those situations when there are runners on base with two outs or whatever and you could see it tonight, it clicked a little better,” Lewis said.

The Rox and MoonDogs both scored a majority of their runs in the first three innings, with St. Cloud taking a 3-1 lead in the first, then never giving it up despite Mankato cutting into the deficit in the third and fifth innings.

The Rox’s first three runs were all unearned, but they piled on in all but three of the following innings. St, Cloud had nine hits as a team, the most impressive coming off the bat of Matt Goetzmann, who lead off the fifth inning by blasting a moonshot around the left field foul pole. The dinger killed any momentum from Mankato, which had just hit a solo blast in the previous frame to pull within one.

Jackson had two doubles and a walk in four at-bats, racking up three RBI and scoring once. Prewitt and first baseman Jackson Hauge also had two hits apiece totaling four singles. Hauge, a redshirt junior from Minnesota State-Mankato scored two runs himself and hit another home.

On the pitching side, Southwest Minnesota State sophomore Ryan Chimielewski and Golden West freshman Alex Ramos both had three innings before handing off to Phelps-Hemmesch. Chimielewski had five strikeouts but gave up three earned runs thanks to three walks and three hits. Ramos was a little cleaner, only giving up one run, but he only had one strikeout.

Lewis said the Sartell grad could’ve probably pitched longer than just the seventh, but he tapped Tarleton State sophomore Jake Burcham to shut down the last two Mankato offensive innings, which he did with four strikeouts and one hit.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Rox win second straight