St. Cloud Rox to play for championship bid

Thanks to two come-from-behind victories, the St. Cloud Rox are one game from playing for their first Summer Collegiate World Series since losing the title in 2021.

All summer the St. Cloud Rox (43-25 regular season) have trailed the Willmar Stingers (51-16) in the Great Plains West subdivision, but on Monday, in the subdivision semifinals they completed their second comeback in a row against their Minnesotan rivals to sweep them from the Northwoods League playoffs. St. Cloud hosts the La Crosse Loggers (40-28) Tuesday night for a one-game divisional series.

The championship will be played Friday with the location determined by overall record. On the other side of the bracket, the Green Bay Rockers (41-31) await the winner of the Traverse City Pit Spitters (42-30) and the Kalamazoo Growlers (46-24) for the Great Lakes division semifinal.

Willmar’s good offense started strong against St. Cloud in both games, jumping to a 2-0 lead Sunday in St. Cloud and 7-1 lead Tuesday at home. Nine Stingers have hit over .300 and they’ve hit 65 home runs as a team. The Rox have sputtered at times this season at the dish, but shortstop Anthony Mata, right fielder Oscar Serratos Jr. and the rest of the Rox lineup swatted clutch hits to win twice in a row despite going 5-7 against Willmar during the regular season.

“In all my 11 years in the league, it’s probably one of the best offenses one through nine,” Lewis said. “There’s no sweet spot for a pitcher.”

Down by a score of 7-6 in the ninth inning of the series final, Mata hit a single to center field to tie the game and allow Serratos to later hit a game-winning sacrifice fly. Serratos, a senior who plays infield for Biola (CA) but has played right for the Rox, had two other RBI in the comeback when he doubled in the three-run sixth inning. Mata was one of those runs scored and he also had an RBI in the comeback.

Mata was responsible for all four runs the night before against Willmar with two line drive home runs to left field. He said all summer he has worked on tips from teammates on improving his hitting and power especially. During pregame batting practice Mata was working on some of that and was frustrated with some drills.

After the game he said he and the team would be “walking taller,” knowing they could compete with one of the league’s best lineups.

Rox relief pitching held Willmar to zero runs in seven innings across both days. Mason Olson, a junior at BYU allowed just one hit Sunday and collectively Owen Marsh, Brooks Ely and Jake Burcham gave up just two Monday.

Lewis said the bullpen is “sitting in a pretty good situation” looking ahead.

St. Cloud is 6-2 against La Crosse this year. The Loggers swept Eau Claire in the Great Plains East sub divisional series.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud Rox to play the La Crosse Loggers for championship bid