Another Disappointing Playoff Exit for the Rox

All photos of Northwoods League Great Plains West Playoffs available on Flickr.

The St. Cloud Rox squandered another phenomenal regular season with a heartbreaking first round playoff loss at the hands of the Mankato Moondoogs this past week.  The key to winning in baseball - more than just about any sport due to the number of games - is less about your overall season record and more about how well you're playing going into the postseason, so the Rox second-best record of 47-22 was almost meaningless when you consider that they ended the season losing two consecutive games to their first round opponent, the Moondogs.  They would also go on to lose Game 1 of the 3-game set in Mankato, and things were looking grim as the first round is almost always a sweep in this league.  However, they did at least manage to win one game before their eventual downfall, which was the game I happened to go to.  Their 4-0 victory was a game completely dictated by starting pitching, as most playoff games tend to be.  The Rox starter Hunter Day pitched one of the best games of his life, tossing 7 innings of shutout ball with 7 strikeouts and over 100 pitches.  The Moondogs starter Braden Grimm basically singlehandedly lost the game more so than the Rox earned the win.  After getting the first out of the 2nd on a fly out, he went on to walk 4 consecutive batters to hand the Rox their first run, then give up a run-scoring sac fly, and then the Rox managed to steal one more run quite literally on a nifty double-steal play they've been running all season.  The inning would end with St. Cloud leading 3-0 on no hits, and for a long time it was looking like they would win this game while also getting no hit.  However, as soon as Wild Thing came out of the game in the 6th, the Rox would immediately notch their first hit to avoid this odd feat.  The Rox did everything they could to lose this game, as their shortstop almost had more errors (3) than the team had hits (4).  Ben Smith picked a great time for his first save of the season with 2 lockdown innings to close the game.  As I eluded to, this valiant effort was sadly all for naught, as St. Cloud would go on to get smoked 10-4 in Game 3.

This has been a really fun team to watch the last couple of years and it was disappointing to see them lose again, but this is one of the best supported teams in all the Northwoods League, and it was awesome to be a part of it in a playoff atmosphere this year.  The Green Bay Rockers would go on to win their 2nd Summer Collegiate World Series in 3 years (they still call it this even though it is now only one game), and in doing so maintained a streak of all Great Lakes Division teams winning the league since the realignment in 2019.  Megan and I are considering changing up our ticket package next year as we are just not huge fans of Joe Faber Field, but we'll still for sure be out to see this exciting team at some point in 2026.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 8/18/25:

Brewers 78-45, +8.0, -- WC; 5 @ Cubs, 3 v. Giants, 4 v. Diamondbacks, 3 @ Blue Jays

Twins 58-66, -14.0, -9.0 WC; 3 v. Athletics, 3 @ White Sox, 3 @ Blue Jays, 3 v. Padres

Athletics 56-70, -14.0, -12.0 WC; 3 @ Twins, 3 @ Mariners, 3 v. Tigers, 3 v. Rangers

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 8
Peter - 28