ROCORI baseball defeated by St. Cloud for the first time in four years
St. Cloud Crush baseball coach Chris Koenig opens his season and career with a win.
The Crush defeated ROCORI 3-2 on April 18 to open the season at Dick Putz field. It’s the first time they have beaten the Spartans (0-1, 0-1 Central Lakes Conference) in four years and it's Koenig’s first victory since being promoted to head coach of St. Cloud (1-0, 1-0).
“I'm so proud of this guys,” Koenig said. “I mean, that's a great team over there. They do all the little things right and to be prepared for that, that's a tribute to these guys.”
Koenig has been an assistant coach at Apollo, then for the Crush for the past nine years.
“Honestly, I can't remember the last time we beat ROCORI,” Crush senior Brayden Schmitz said. “So just going to keep this momentum going and hope to make a run this year.”
The Spartans have won eight consecutive games against a St. Cloud team, their most recent loss coming in 2019 before Tech and Apollo merged to become the Crush. St. Cloud Apollo won 10-9 that year in a late regular season game that lasted eight innings.
“We’ve got plenty of things to work on,” Koenig said. “We’re not going to get too high or too low, we’ll learn from this.”
To get the win, St. Cloud threw both of whom will likely be its best pitchers this season: Truman Toenjes went 4.1 innings with seven strikeouts and Elian Mezquita threw 2.2 innings in relief.
“They're seniors, they've been in this spot before and that's what we expect,” Koenig said. “Those two guys are going to give us a chance every time they take the ball.”
Both managers said the teams had limited outdoor practice leading up to the game because of the late-melting snow and cold temperatures during the first part of the spring season.
“This was our first official day,” ROCORI coach Jeff Illies said. “We went outside last Friday and took some fly balls, but that was about it.”
Illies said pitchers have the advantage to start the season. Hitting off a tee or pitching machine, even off of live pitchers in a cage does not compare to the real deal.
“Seeing the ball outside and in the daylight is a lot different than seeing the ball under lights,” he said. “I think defensively we have a big enough gym that we’re able to do stuff inside, so that’s okay. Early on pitchers will be ahead.”
ROCORI shortstop Jack Spanier said it felt “amazing” to play outside. The senior Minnesota commit agreed that hitting could be a struggle for some of the guys with fewer varsity innings as the season winds up.
Spanier, who had three of the Spartans’ six hits, said being in the elements not only affects the appearance of pitches but, “how the ball moves outside is a lot different than in the cage,” too.
Koenig said his hitters will need to work on getting their timing down, especially with early fastballs. Being late leads to having to work out of a hole.
“Sometimes the best pitch you get is the first one and we’ve got to be ready for that, especially if it’s a fastball,” he said. “That’ll come with time – pitch recognition, all of that stuff.”
Schmitz said he was looking for a fastball when he hit the fourth-inning double that scored two and put the Crush up 3-1.
“(There were) two outs, runners on second and third with a one-one count, he just threw a fastball and I put it oppo,” he said.
Illies credited St. Cloud’s offense for the big inning, but he liked what he saw from his own, too. The Spartans had three more hits than the Crush and they struck first, tallying a run in the opening frame. ROCORI added another run in the top of the fifth after losing the lead.
“Our guys battled back,” Illies said. “It was just a fun high school game to be a part of.”
Both teams’ next game is scheduled for Thursday if the weather allows. St. Cloud is home again, hosting Willmar at 7 p.m. at Putz Field, but ROCORI travels for a 5 p.m. first pitch at Alexandria Area’s Knute Nelson Field.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: ROCORI baseball defeated by St. Cloud
