Rockers Win Nightcap over Ducks, 2-1

June 27, 2022 by Steve Shutt

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – The High Point Rockers and Long Island Ducks split a doubleheader on Thursday night at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. The Ducks took the opening game 5-1 while the Rockers bounced back to claim the nightcap 2-1.

The Rockers are now 31-25 on the season and trail Gastonia (38-17) by 7.5 games in the Atlantic League’s South Division. Southern Maryland clinched a share of the North Division pennant with a 12-3 win at Staten Island on Tuesday.

The Rockers were trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning of the nightcap when they put together the game-winning rally. Johnny Field led off with a single and Ben Aklinski followed with a walk against Long Island righty Scott Harkin (L, 4-5). Zander Wiel doubled to right field to score Field and move Aklinski to third. Quincy Latimore’s sac fly to left scored Aklinski with the go-ahead run.

High Point starter Ivan Pineyro (W, 1-0) went five innings and held the Ducks to four hits on two walks while striking out six. Long Island’s lone run came in the second inning when Rusney Castillo walked, advanced to second on a single by Joe DeCarlo and scored on a single by Vladimir Frias.

Bryce Hensley pitched a three-up, three-down sixth and Ryan Dull (S, 1) earned his first save of the year with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

In the opener, the Rockers sent recent signee Nick Evangelista (L, 0-1) to the mound. The South Jersey native, who pitched this spring at Fairleigh Dickinson University as a graduate student, gave a solid showing for his professional debut. He allowed only three hits over 5.1 innings and walked one and struck out one. Evangelist allowed a run in the first on a single by L.J. Mazzilli who would score on a sac fly.

DeCarlo hit a solo homer leading off the fifth to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead. Evangelista departed after hitting Long Island’s Deven Marrero with a pitch in the sixth. Adam Choplick came on in relief and allowed an RBI double to Sam Travis and a two-run homer to Deibinson Romero.

The Rockers tallied their lone run in the seventh when Giovanny Alfonzo singled, moved to third on a double by Mike Gulino and scored on a ground out by Michael Russell.

Long Island’s Stephen Tarpley (W, 2-3) tossed five innings for the Ducks and allowed four hits and two walks while striking out three. Nick Goody (S, 2) struck out three in his two innings of work.

The Rockers will return home and host the Lexington Legends on Friday night at 6:35 p.m. at Truist Point. Following the game, the Rockers will have a fireworks show with fans allowed to watch from the field.

Rockers’ rally comes up short

June 22, 2022 by Steve Shutt

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – The Long Island Ducks scored in each of the first five innings on Tuesday night in dropping the High Point Rockers 9-7 at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. But the Rockers didn’t go down without a fight, scoring four times in the top of the ninth and putting the tying run in the on-deck circle.

The loss leaves the Rockers at 30-24 on the season and 7.5 games behind South Division-leading Gastonia (37-16).

The Rockers were trailing 9-3 heading into the ninth when Johnny Field led off with a pinch-single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Mike Gulino drew a walk and Logan Morrison singled to left to score Field to bring the Rockers to within five at 9-4. Zander Wiel then stroked a massive blast to left field for his second homer of the night and 13^th of the year to pull the Rockers to within two runs at 9-7. But Long Island reliever Cody Beckman struck out Quincy Latimore to end the threat.

The Ducks scored single runs in each of the first two innings off High Point starter Jonah Scolaro (L, 1-1) before touching the rookie lefthander for a pair of runs in the third.

Wiel blasted a solo homer leading off the fourth inning to make it a 4-1 game.

Scolaro started the fourth inning but left the game with the bases loaded and nobody out. John Hayes replaced Scolaro and all three inherited runners scored to give the Ducks a 7-1 lead.

The Rockers cut the deficit to 7-3 in the fifth on RBI singles by Morrison and Ben Aklinski.

Long Island tacked on two more runs in the fifth when the first two hitters reached on infield errors. L.J. Mazzilli then delivered an RBI single and a passed ball allowed the second run to score.

Joe Iorio (W, 6-1) earned the win for Long Island with five innings of work, allowing five hits and three runs.

High Point and Long Island will meet in game two of the three-game series at 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday at Fairfield Properties Ballpark.

Rockers fall 12-11 in extra innings

June 19, 2022 by Steve Shutt

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Charleston Dirty Birds managed their third walk-off win of the weekend over the High Point Rockers with a 12-11 victory in 10 innings at Appalachian Power Park on Sunday.

The Rockers are now 30-23 on the year and trail South Division-leading Gastonia by 6.5 games.

The game boiled down to a bases-loaded single by Scott Burcham that scored Connor Justus in the bottom of the 10^th. But that’s just scratching the surface.

Tied at 9-9 going to the bottom of the ninth, High Point reliever Jonathon Crawford hit Tyler Blaum with a pitch to start the inning and then threw a wild pitch allowing Blaum to move to second. Another wild pitch moved Blaum to third with nobody out. After a walk to Burcham, Crawford hit Scott Kelly with a pitch to load the bases. The Rockers brought in outfielder Ben Aklinski as a fifth infielder. Crawford induced Corey Bird to pop out to Aklinski at second base then struck out Angel Garced. Crawford then threw a pitch to Heath that sailed to the backstop. High Point catcher Dakota Mulcay fielded the ball on the rebound off the backstop and fired to third to pickoff Blaum and send the game into extra innings.

With Jay Gonzalez starting the 10^th inning on second, Mulcay sacrifice bunted him to third before Giovanny Alfonzo blasted his first home run of the year to stake the Rockers to an 11-9 lead.

Aklinski then was called to the mound to pitch the bottom of the tenth. With a runner on second, Aklinski walked Nick Heath to start the inning. Anfernee Seymour grounded a ball to Tyler Ladendorf at second who flipped to Alfonzo for the out at second but Seymour was ruled safe at first, bringing Rockers manager Jamie Keefe out of the dugout. With runners at first and third, Aklinski walked Justus to load the bases. Yovan Gonzalez hit a ground rule double to tie the game and Burcham then lined a single to right to give Charleston a 12-11 win.

Charleston built a 3-0 lead early, scoring twice in the first and adding a run in the second. High Point starter Kyle Mott issued a pair of walks and a hit batter to load the bases with no outs. Yovan Gonzalez forced in a run when he was walked and Burcham plated another run on a sac fly. In the second, Bird singled, moved to second on a ground out and scored on a Heath single.

High Point made it a 3-2 game in the third when Jerry Downs belted a two-run homer, scoring Michael Martinez in front of him after Martinez had doubled. The Rockers then tied the game in the fourth when Ladendorf singled and moved to third on a double by Quincy Latimore. Gonzalez brough home a run with a ground out before Alfonzo singled to score Latimore.

Charleston scored five times in the bottom of the fourth. Mott walked three to load the bases and Seymore brought home a run on a ground out. Justus then punched a two-run single and Blaum brought in another run with a groundout to take an 8-4 lead.

But the Rockers answered right back with five runs of their own in the top of the fifth. Singles by Martinez and Joe Johnson, sandwiched around a walk to Downs, loaded the bases for Latimore who hit a grand slam to tie the game at eight. Gonzalez then doubled and scored on an Alfonzo double as the Rockers went up 9-8.

The Dirty Birds tied the game in the bottom of the fifth on a Scott Kelly double and an RBI single from Heath.

High Point will head to Long Island and start a three-game series with the Ducks on Tuesday, June 21.

Aklinski HR Helps Rockers Split with Dirty Birds

June 18, 2022 by Steve Shutt

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The High Point Rockers split a doubleheader with the Charleston Dirty Birds on Saturday at Appalachian Power Park. The Rockers shutout the ‘Birds 2-0 in the nightcap after Charleston took a 7-6 decision in the opener.

High Point won its 30^th game of the season and improved to 30-22 on the year. With Gastonia (35-16) falling to Lexington on Saturday, the Rockers are 5.5 games out of first place in the Atlantic League South Division.

The Rockers took a 6-0 lead in the opening game. In the second inning, Zander Wiel doubled and scored on a single by Michael Martinez. Martinez moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a single by Tyler Ladendorf before scoring on a Mike Gulino sac fly.

In the third, Logan Morrison hit his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot to right, to put High Point ahead 3-0. Two batters later, Jerry Downs followed with his sixth homer of the year to extend the lead to 4-0.

Downs would hit his second homer of the game, and seventh of the season, with Ben Aklinski on board, to give High point a 6-0 advantage.

Charleston started to methodically cut into the lead. In the bottom of the fifth, High Point starting pitcher Ivan Pineyro allowed singles to Scott Burcham and Tyler Blaum before Scott Kelly was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Nick Heath’s sac fly scored one run and then Connor Justus singled home another run.

The Rockers acquired Pineyro in a trade with Sussex County of the Can-Am League. He went five innings in his first appearance as a rocker and left the game with a 6-2 lead.

In the sixth, Adam Choplick replaced Pineyro and allowed three consecutive singles to start the inning. Alfredo Gonzalez reached on an infield single, Engel Beltre singled to score Gonzalez and Scott Burcham followed with an RBI single.

Chasen Bradford came on to close the game in the seventh with the Rockers still holding on to a 6-4 lead. Yovan Gonzalez was hit by a pitch to start the inning, Alfredo Gonzalez singled and Beltre drew a walk to lad the bases. Charleston scored one on a Burcham 6-4-3 double play. But Tyler Blaum’s single scored Alfredo Gonzalez and then Corey Bird doubled to left center to score Blaum with the winning run for a 7-6 Charleston victory.

The nightcap was scoreless through six innings until Ben Aklinski drilled a pinch-hit homer leading off the top of the seventh. It was Aklinski’s ninth home run of the season and gave High Point a 1-0 lead. Logan Morrison then slashed a single to right and Tyler Ladendorf doubled to the wall in left, allowing Morrison to come around and score for a 2-0 lead.

Bryce Hensley (W, 1-1) pitched a scoreless sixth for the Rockers and struck out the side in the bottom to earn the win.

Austin Glorius went five innings and struck out a season-high seven batters. Bryce Hensley threw a scoreless sixth inning .

The Rockers will conclude the series with Charleston on Sunday at Appalachian Power Park with a 5:05 p.m. first pitch.