HIGH POINT, N.C. – On a night when the High Point Rockers celebrated the career of star outfielder Ben Aklinski, the fitting ending would have been Aklinski hitting yet another walk-off homer.
Alas, the final result, a 3-2 win by the Charleston Dirty Birds in 10 innings, was not the way it was written in the script.
Tied at 2-2 in the 10th, Charleston used a walk, a ground out and a wild pitch to move the “ghost runner,” Alsander Womack, around to score to give Charleston the 3-2 victory.
In their regular season finale, the Rockers put two men on in the bottom of the 10th but were unable to tie the game.
That Aklinski was unavailable at the end was a tribute to his outstanding four-year career as a Rocker in which he set club records for games played, at-bats, runs scored, hits, home runs and RBI as well as a slew of other milestones. Rockers manager Jamie Keefe had pre-arranged to take Aklinski out in the seventh inning which he did to a standing ovation from the 2,520 fans at Truist Point on Thursday night.
“Ben exemplifies what it means to be a Rocker,” said Keefe following the game.
The loss ends the regular season with the Rockers and the York Revolution tied for the best full season record in the Atlantic League at 74-52.
Next up for the Rockers is a date with the Gastonia Ghost Peppers in the best-of-five ALPB South Division Championship which starts on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Gastonia’s CaroMont Health Park.
Thursday night, Charleston put runs up on the scoreboard first, tallying two in the second inning. Alan Alonso managed a lead-off single off Rockers starter Ben Wereski before moving to second on a single by Carlos Amezquita. Thatcher Poteat then doubled to right to score Alonso and Amezquita scored on an infield groundout by Benjamin Blackwell.
The Rockers tied the game at 2-2 in the third on an RBI single from Luis Gonzalez and a run-scoring double from Drew Mendoza.
The Rockers were held to five hits by Charleston’s pitchers. Reliever Parker Kruglewicz (W, 1-0) shutout the Rockers over his two innings of work in the eighth and ninth innings before turning it over to Nolan Lamere (S, 1) for the save. High Point’s Jameson McGrane took the loss, allowing a walk and two strikeouts in the top of the 10th.
Saturday’s ALPB DCS game will be streamed live on FLOBASEBALL.TV and available on the MixLR app.
NOTES: Ben Aklinski made his first start of the year at second base . . . He was removed from the game to a standing ovation in the top of the seventh and replaced by Ian Yetsko . . . Luis Gonzalez extended his consecutive games on-base streak to 32 with a first inning single . . . Luke Napleton finished the regular season with a .407 batting average though he will not qualify for the league statistics . . . Aklinski finished as the team home run leader with 32 while he and Drew Mendoza share the team RBI lead with 96.
