High Point Rockers vs. Lexington Legends

The Rockers and Legends will start a three-game set on Tuesday at Truist Point, which will be the first of in essence a six-game series with the final three games being played at Legends Field in Lexington. This matchup marks the third straight week the two clubs will have played and after the week is over they will have finished five of their seven series for the season. Heading into Tuesday, High Point has won seven of the nine games against Lexington so far this year. Lexington is coming off losing three out of four games to Hagerstown over the weekend and has lost seven of their past 10 games. On the flip side, the Rockers have won seven of their past 10 and have won or split their past five series.

 

About the Rockers:

The Rockers come into this game at 17-11, two and a half games behind Gastonia for first in the South Division. They are a half game up on the Charleston Dirty Birds who the Rockers split a four-game set with this past weekend. After the Rockers got off to a scorching start winning their first five games, they dropped three straight series. However, they have since found their footing. They had a nine-game homestand where they went 7-2, winning all three series vs Southern Maryland, Lexington and Charleston. They then split road series with both Lexington and Charleston. They’ll have a chance this week to make up ground on Gastonia and retake first place in the South with six straight games against last place Lexington.

Key Players:

Ryan Grotjohn:

Grotjohn started the season in a slump that saw him putting together quality at-bats and hitting the ball hard across the field, but not getting results. It felt as though every ball he hit hard was right at a fielder. Through it all, he remained confident, knowing if he continued to make good contact, those balls would fall. It took a couple weeks, but he was right. Over Grotjohn’s past ten games he is hitting .333 with three homers. His bat was a big reason why the Rockers took first place over Charleston, and now his bat could be the biggest factor in the Rockers reclaiming it.

Jake Washer:

Washer smashed his first home run of the season on Sunday in a 6-0 Rocker victory. His bat has been hot all year and particularly hot in the past ten games. He is hitting .316 over those past 10 with four runs batted in. Washer splits time behind the plate with Brian Parreria, but the way he has been swinging it, it will make it difficult to keep his bat out of the lineup.

Keys Trends:

HR ball:

The Rockers have the third-most homers in the Atlantic League with 40 and have won every game this season in which they out-homer their opponent. More than 41% of their offense production comes via the HR, demonstrating how vital it is to the Rockers success. However, the Rockers offense is evolving to not be so reliant on the home run. Over the Rockers past 12 games, just 25% of their offense has come from the long ball. Despite that, the Rockers are 13-0 when they outhomer their opponent, compared to just 2-9 when they don’t.

Playing clean defense:

A point of emphasis from Rocker manager Jaime Keefe has been when the team plays clean defense, the Rockers. The Rockers have been winning games recently, but a couple have slipped away from them during the past road trip due to sloppy defense. High Point has made at least one error in five of its past six games and has eight errors overall during that span. The biggest example was on Sunday, when a pair of errors aided Charleston to a five run third inning that proved to be the difference in the game. Overall the Rockers are one of the cleaner teams in the league with the third fewest errors committed, however they’ll have to reverse the recent trend of sloppy play in the field.

Dominance on the mound:

In 2023 High Point had the best strikeout to walk ratio in the Atlantic League. They had the second most strikeouts and fewest walks, with 69 fewer than the next closest club. This season the Rockers are demonstrating a similar dominance. They have the best ERA at 3.53 and have a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.65. Rockers pitchers have plenty of strikeout stuff, striking out more than 11.5 batters per nine innings and have 31 more strikeouts than the next closest club. The Rockers prevent runners from getting on base because they don’t walk a soul. They have walked just 85 guys all year, which can explain in part why they have stranded more runners than their opponent in each of their past seven games.

 About the Legends:

Lexington comes into this three-game series at 7-21, the worst mark in the league, 10 games behind High Point and 12.5 behind Gastonia, which paces the South Division. The Legends have dropped seven of their past 10 games, which includes losing three of five to the Rockers over the past couple weeks. They are by far the youngest team in the league, and their inexperience has cost them thus far.

Keys Players:

Dustin Beggs:

Beggs was Lexington’s opening day starter this season and an arm they will have to lean on again to try to turn their season around. Beggs has had a rough season to this point. He has made four starts and has pitched to a 5.89 ERA. What has killed Beggs the most has been the home run ball. He has given up eight so far this year. This is not a new problem for Beggs, who allowed 24 homers last year with Spire City. Beggs has made three starts against High Point. The first two have gone High Point’s way, but in the more recent matchup, Beggs made an adjustment and dominated the Rockers through seven innings, leading Lexington to a 2-1 win. Beggs has an ERA of 5.63 and has given up four of his eight homers to the Rockers. If Beggs can replicate his last start vs the Rockers, he may steal another win from High Point.

Pedro Gonzalez:

Gonzalez has only played 12 games with Lexington this season but has made a big impact. He made his season debut vs the Rockers two weeks ago at Truist Point and homered in that game. He has racked up four homers in total, with three of the four coming vs the Rockers. He has a .295 average for his short season and a .368 average vs High Point. At 6’6” Gonzalez has a huge presence in the box and has been a scary hitter for Rocker pitchers. They will have to be careful with Gonzalez as he poses the biggest threat of all Lexington hitters.

Key Trends:

Can the offense keep up:

Other than leading the league in doubles, Lexington is toward the bottom of the league in every offensive category. However, if you watch the Legends play, they are a team that causes havoc on the bases, scratches and claws offensively to keep up. We saw an example of this last week in Lexington when Aldenis Sanchez stole home in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game and send it to extras where the Rockers would ultimately prevail. Lexington’s pitching staff is their weakness, so the offense will have to score in bunches to keep up.

Keeping the ball in the park:

The Legends have the highest ERA in the league at 6.92. The reason for the high number, the long ball. The Legends have allowed 47 homers this year, which is five more than the next closest club. They’ve walked 163, 19 more than Hagerstown, the next closest club. The Rockers have hit the third most homers in the league and draw the second most walks, making this series a matchup of strength vs weakness. Lexington has to be able to prevent throwing ball four, and keep the ball in the park to give themselves any shot.

Pitching Matchup:

Tues: LEX – Dustin Beggs vs HP – Taylor Guerrieri

Beggs: 29 IP (6G-5GS) / 5.89 ERA / 9BB:22Ks / 8HR allowed

Guerrieri: 17IP (5G-3GS) / (4.76 ERA) / 17Ks / 5BB / 6HR allowed

 

Wed: LEX – Jose Acuna vs HP – Neil Uskali

Acuna: 20.2IP (5G-4GS) / 6.09 ERA / 25BB:12Ks / 4HR allowed

Uskali: 5.0 IP (2G-1GS) / 5ER (9.00 ERA) / 4BB / 4Ks

 

Thurs: LEX – Elio Serrano vs HP – Jonah Scolaro

Serrano: 14.1IP (11G) / (5.65 ERA) / 13BB:16Ks / 1HR allowed

Scolaro: 14.2IP (3GS) / (1.84 ERA) / 4BB / 13Ks / 1HR allowed

 

 

 

 

Starting Pitching Keys:

The Rockers have seen a lot of Dustin Beggs. This will be the fourth start he’ll make this season vs High Point. Thus far he has a 1-1 record across 16 innings with a 5.36 ERA and four homers allowed. The Rockers won the first two against Beggs before he held the Rockers to one run over seven innings last week in Lexington. Acuna has made one start vs the Rockers this season and only got through three innings. He allowed six runs, one homer and an opponent batting average of .462. He has walked seven Rockers and has zero strikeouts. Serrano will be making his first start of the year. In relief vs the Rockers he has thrown four innings and allowed three runs. These three starters will have to limit the free passes so that when they give up long balls it only burns them for one run, rather than allowing the big inning.

 

The theme for the three Rocker starters in this series are they all had a rough introduction to the starting rotation, but have since settled in very nicely. Taylor Guerreri will make his third straight start against the Legends. After getting roughed up in his first start against Southern Maryland, Guerreri has pitched to a 1.50 ERA. He has 12 innings this year against Lexington and the two ER allowed have both come via the HR. All nine runs he has allowed this year have come due to allowing the HR ball. Guerreri has allowed six this year and if he can limit those he may dominate Lexington again. Uskali made his first start against Lexington and walked the first three guys he faced, but limited the inning to just two runs and settled in to allow the Rockers to come back and win. Uskali will have to build on his previous two appearances and show his best stuff so far. Scolaro also had a rough first go as he was getting stretched out and used to outdoor pitching once again. However, like Guerreri and Uskali he settled in and allowed only one run over 11 innings in his next two starts. All three of Guerreri, Uskali and Scolaro will look to continue to create soft conduct and have success in this series vs the Legends.

 

Milestone Watch:

Rockers manager, Jaime Keefe, has the third best active win percentage in the Atlantic League and got wins 300 and 301 when the Rockers swept their doubleheader Sunday against the Dirty Birds on May 19th. He has another milestone on the horizon though, with three more games managed he will hit 2,000.

 

How Can I Tune In?

            Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday our coverage will start at 6:20 p.m. EDT with a first pitch time of 6:45 p.m. EDT. Tune into the game on MixLR or watch the game on FloSports.

 

 

 

HIGH POINT, N.C. – High Point Rockers left-handed pitcher Brandon Leibrandt has had his contract acquired by the Cincinnati Reds. Leibrandt becomes the third High Point player this season to have their contract purchased by a Major League organization.

Leibrandt is 2-0 this season and his ERA of 0.93 is the second-best in the Atlantic League. He has thrown 19.1 innings and allowed just 12 hits and seven walks while striking out 24.

The 33^rd Rocker player to move onto a Major League organization or foreign team, Leibrandt joins right-handed pitchers Kyle Barraclough and Peter Solomon who each had their contracts acquired by the Texas Rangers.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A day after an 11-10 extra inning win on Tuesday night, the High Point Rockers were held to just six hits as the Lexington Legends took game two of the series 2-1 in a morning matinee on Wednesday at Legends Field.

High Point starter Taylor Guerrieri was perfect through four innings, retiring the first 12 batters in order. The Rockers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth as Zander Wiel singled, moved to second on a fielder’s choice by Ryan Grotjohn and scored on a single from Jake Washer.

The first batter that Guerrieri allowed on base touched all of them as Pedro Gonzalez led off the fifth with a solo homer that tied the game at 1-1.

The game remained tied until the Legends scored once off reliever Neil Uskali (L, 0-1) in the seventh to forge a 2-1 lead. Kole Cottam singled before Osmy Gregorio moved him to second with another single. Aldenis Sanchez doubled, scoring Cottam with Gregorio thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

Joe Joe Rodriguez worked around a walk in the eighth to keep High Point off the board. In the ninth, the Rockers were able to get runners at first and second, but Osiris German (S, 1) came on for the Legends with one down and retired Clayton Mehlbauer and D.J. Burt on strikes to earn the save.

Lexington starter Dustin Beggs (W, 1-2) went seven innings and allowed five hits without a walk while striking out five.

Connor Owings and Washer each had two hits for the Rockers. The High Point pitching staff limited the Legends to just four hits but all four of them factored into the Lexington victory.

High Point, now 15-9 on the season, will play the final game of the three-game series vs. the Legends on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. at Legends Field.

By Sam Sinder
High Point Rockers vs. Lexington Legends

The Rockers and Legends will start a three-game set on Tuesday, May 21 at Legends Field. The two clubs continue to spiral in opposite directions. Lexington has lost eight of its past ten games and remain nine games back of both Gastonia, and High Point, which lead the South Division. The Legends had been swept in consecutive three game sets vs Charleston, then lost two out of three to both High Point and Gastonia. The Rockers are coming off a sweep of the Charleston Dirty Birds and have won five straight contests dating back to when the Rockers took the final two out of three against Lexington last week at Truist Point. This is the Rockers first five-game winning streak since they did it to start the season, with four of those five coming in a four-game sweep at Legends Field. The Rockers and Legends play 25 times this season, and have 18 games remaining, however just six of those will be in Lexington.

 

About the Rockers:
The Rockers enter into this series at 14-8, tied with Gastonia for first in the South Division, one game ahead of the Charleston Dirty Birds who the Rockers swept this past weekend. After the Rockers got off to a scorching start, winning their first five games, they dropped three straight series. However, they have since found their footing. The Rockers had a nine-game homestand where they went 7-2, winning all three series vs Southern Maryland, Lexington and Charleston. They look to stay hot and handle business on the road, a place where they are 5-2 so far this year.

 

Key Players:

Ryan Grotjohn:
Grotjohn started the season in a slump that saw him putting together quality at-bats and hitting the ball hard across the field, but not getting results. It felt as though every ball he hit hard was right at a fielder. However, through it all he remained confident, knowing if he continued to make good contact, those balls would fall. It took a couple weeks, but he was right. Over Grotjohn’s past ten games he is hitting .300 and clubbed his first homerun in the first game of the Rocker’s doubleheader Sunday vs the Dirty Birds. His bat has been a big reason why the Rockers have gone on a five-game tear, and has the potential to carry this team and continue the streak.

Gavin Johns:
Last Wednesday the Rockers signed Gavin Johns and since then, they haven’t lost. Johns has provided energy and been a spark plug for this team. He has hit safely in three of his four games thus far with two of his three being multi-hit games. He earned Rocker’s Player of the Week honors and looks to continue to drive in runs in this series against the Legends.

 

Keys Trends:

HR ball:
The Rockers have the most homers in the Atlantic league with 33 and have won every game this season in which they hit more homers than their opponent. More than 45% of their offensive production comes via the HR, demonstrating how vital it is to the Rockers success. However, the Rockers offense is evolving to not be reliant on the home run. Over the Rockers past six games, just 21% of their runs have come from the long ball. And in two of the Rockers three wins against Charleston over the weekend, they were out homered. Those two games were the first such games this season where the Rockers were outhomered and lost, making their record in those games 2-6.

 

Comeback Kids:
The first 13 games this season the Rockers did not see a lead change, however since then all but one game has had a lead change. To go even further, all but one of the Rockers seven wins since then have been comeback wins. The Rockers have even had the walk off magic going with two of their last three games being won on walk off hits. The Rockers will look to handle Lexington whether that be in wire-to-wire fashion or with a comeback victory.

 

Dominance on the mound:
In 2023, High Point had the best strikeout to walk ratio in the Atlantic League. They had the second-most strikeouts and fewest walks, with 69 fewer than any other club. This season the Rockers are demonstrating a similar dominance. They have the best ERA at 3.64 and have a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.91, which is nearly 1.3 more than Gastonia, the team with the second-best mark. Rockers pitchers have plenty of strikeout stuff, striking out more than 12 batters per nine innings and have 54 more strikeouts than Gastonia, the team with the second-most Ks. The Rockers have had as many or more strikeouts than their opponent in 19 of their 22 games this season.

 

About the Legends:
Lexington comes into this three-game series at 5-17, the worst mark in the league, nine games behind High Point and Gastonia, which pace the South Division. The Legends have dropped eight of their past ten games, which includes losing two of three to the Rockers last week. They are by far the youngest team in the league, and their inexperience has cost them thus far.

 

Keys Players:

Dustin Beggs:
Beggs was Lexington’s opening day starter this season and an arm they will have to lean on again to try to turn their season around. Beggs has had a rough season to this point. He has made four starts and has pitched to a 7.36 ERA. What has hurt Beggs the most has been the eight home runs he has allowed this year. This is not a new problem for him, who allowed 24 homers last year with Spire City. In his two starts against High Point, Beggs is yet to earn a win. With an ERA of 9.00 and four homers allowed, Beggs will have to do a better job of keeping the ball in the yard to give Lexington a chance.

 

Kole Cottam:
Cottam joined Lexington about a week and a half ago but since he has been a Legend, he has been on fire. He’s hit for a .333 batting average and parked four homers while showing great discipline at the plate walking ten times and striking out just six. Cottam has been a problem for the Atlantic League for a couple seasons now. He slugged 30 homers and 24 doubles for Spire City last year and has not slowed down one bit this season.

 

Key Trends:

Can the offense keep up:
Going into last week’s matchup between Lexington and High Point, the Legends had scored the second-most runs in the league and had the most doubles. However, after being held to three runs all series against Gastonia, they now have scored the second-fewest runs. They’ve hit the second-fewest homers, but get on base and try to cause havoc. Lexington’s pitching staff will give up runs, and Lexington’s offense will have to score a bunch to keep up.

 

Keeping the ball in the park:
The Legends have the highest ERA in the league at 7.33, primarily because of their inability to limit home runs. The Legends have allowed 39 homers this year, seven more than any other team in the ALPB. They’ve walked 134, 24 more than any other club. The Rockers have hit the most homers in the league and draw the third-most walks, making this series a matchup of strength vs weakness. Lexington has to be able to prevent throwing ball four, and keep the ball in the park to give themselves any shot.

 

Pitching Matchup:
Fri: HP – Ben Braymer vs LEX – Dustin Beggs
Braymer: 0-0, 0.00 ERA (first appearance of 2024)
Beggs: 22 IP (5G-4GS) / 7.36 ERA / 9BB:17Ks / 8HR allowed

Sat: HP – Taylor Guerrieri vs LEX – TBA
Guerrieri: 12IP (4G-2GS) / 8ER (6.00 ERA) / 15Ks / 4BB / 4HR allowed

TBA:

 

Sun: HP – Brandon Leibrandt vs LEX – Jose Acuna
Leibrandt: 19.1IP (4GS) / 2ER (0.93 ERA) / 7BB / 24Ks
Acuna: 16.2IP (4GS) / 7.02 ERA / 24BB:10Ks / 3HR allowed

 

Keys for Rocker Starters:
The Rockers are happy to not be seeing Nick Laio, who shut them down last Tuesday at Truist Point. Instead, they’ll see Dustin Beggs and Jose Acuna, two arms the Rockers have had a lot of success against. For High Point, Braymer will make his first appearance of the season. He is a former Major Leaguer and pitched to a 1.16 ERA with the Rockers last year. Guerrieri has been exceptional this year excluding one rough start against Southern Maryland. In his last start, he took on Lexington and held them down to just one run over four innings. Leibrandt has been brilliant for the Rockers as well, he’s allowed just two earned runs over 19.1 innings and has used his fastball, slider, changeup pitch mix to baffle hitters. He has struck out 24 so far and should be in line for more against Lexington this series.

 

Milestone Watch:
Rockers manager, Jaime Keefe, has the third best active win percentage in the Atlantic League and picked up wins 300 and 301 when the Rockers swept their doubleheader Sunday against the Dirty Birds. He has another milestone on the horizon, needing just nine more games to hit 2,000 games managed for his career.

 

How Can I Tune In?
Tuesday and Thursday our coverage will start at 6:20 p.m. EDT with a first pitch time of 6:45 p.m. EDT. Our pregame coverage for Wednesday’s 10:15 a.m. EDT game will begin at 9:50 a.m. EDT. This series will be broadcast exclusively on MixLR as we will call the game remotely.

 

 

 

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Big South Baseball Championship will begin play on Thursday, May 23 at 1 p.m. at Truist Point. The top four teams in the Big South regular season standings have advanced to the championship, led by No. 1 see Presbyterian, No. 2 High Point University, No. 3 USC Upstate and No. 4 Charleston Southern.

Thursday’s schedule features Presbyterian vs. Charleston Southern at 1 p.m. followed by High Point vs. USC Upstate at 5 p.m.

Three games are slated for Friday with starting times of 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. The championship game will take place on Saturday at noon. All games will be played at Truist Point.

Tickets: Priced at $15 per day for adults; $12 per day for students and children. If purchased prior to May 22, all tickets are $11. All seating is general admission.

Tickets are available here

Championship Seeds:

• Presbyterian College (18-6)
• High Point University (17-7)
• USC Upstate (16-8)
• Charleston Southern (12-12)

Practice Day, Wednesday, May 22

1          High Point      10 am -11:15
2          USC Upstate   11:30-12:45
3          Presbyterian    1:00-2:15
4          CSU    2:30-3:45

 

Game Schedule
Thursday, May 23
Gates open at noon
1:00     Game 1           #1 Presbyterian vs. #4 Charleston Southern
5:00     Game 2           #2 High Point vs. #3 USC Upstate

Friday, May 24
Gates open at 10:00 am
11:00 am         Game 3           Loser Game 1 vs Loser Game 2 (Elimination game)
3:00 pm           Game 4           Winner Game 1 winner vs Winner Game 2
7:00 pm           Game 5           Winner Game 3 vs Loser Game 4 (Elimination game)

Saturday, May 25
Gates open at 11:00 am
12:00 pm         Game 6           Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5
4:00 pm           Game 7           In necessary, same teams from Game 6

Notes:

• Fans can exit Truist Point and re-enter
• Gates will stay open between games
• The winner of the tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Regionals.
• Presbyterian earned the No. 1 seed for the first time since joining the Big South in 2007. The Blue Hose won the Big South Tournament in 2021.
• High Point, Upstate and Charleston Southern are seeking their first-ever tournament title.
• If the undefeated team in Game 6 should lose, a second championship game would be played at 4 p.m. Saturday.
• Former Big South member Campbell is the defending tournament champion but the Camels are now members of the Colonial Athletic Association.

 

 

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By Katelynn Hunter
HighPointRockers.com

Greensboro native Greg White has made a full circle after signing with the High Point Rockers.  He played in his first game for the Rockers on Mother’s Day where his mom was in the stands to watch the team bring home the win. For White, the dream of playing professional baseball hasn’t faded even through the face of adversity.

As a junior in high school at Wesleyan Christian Academy, he was not being heavily recruited. This was not discouraging to White but instead a source of motivation. After graduating, White made the team at Pitt Community College in Greenville, North Carolina. He spent two years at Pitt Community College before transferring to North Carolina A&T (DI). When he was being recruited by NC A&T, he knew that he was being called to come back home.

“Being surrounded by my support system kept me motivated,” stated White. Being able to play Division I baseball in his hometown was a dream come true. He was able to pursue his dreams while being surrounded by the people he loved. During his time at NC A&T, he started in 47 games and finished the season with a .350 average. White was able to help lead the Aggies to a spot in the 2017 MEAC Baseball Championship Tournament. He was able to see his hard work paying off but did not want his career to stop here.

After graduating college, White continued to pursue his dreams of playing professionally. He tried out for multiple teams but was declined a spot on their rosters. This process continued for several months but White did not give up hope. In 2021, he signed with the Boise Hawks in the Pioneer League for the season. At the end of the season, White found himself looking for a spot with another team. He continued to train and kept himself in shape while waiting for another opportunity to play the sport he loves so much.

In May 2024, White received a call from the High Point Rockers and was quickly added to the roster. This was a full circle moment for him as he was back playing baseball in his hometown. Seeing his family in the stands meant the world to him as he played in his first game on Saturday and then made his first start on Sunday, getting a hit and driving in a run.