CHARLESTON, W.Va. – High Point’s Evan Edwards hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, and drove in five runs to help lead the Rockers past the Charleston Dirty Birds 10-6 on Sunday afternoon at GoMart Park. The win gives the Rockers a 3-3 split in the six-game series.
The Rockers became the first team in the Atlantic League to reach 60 wins and their record now stands at 60-39. High Point is 19-17 in the second half and they trail South Division-leading Gastonia (22-14) by three games and are behind second place Lexington (20-15) by 1.5 games.
The Rockers banged out 14 hits with Evans hitting a solo homer in the second and a grand slam in the seventh. Luke Napleton and Max Viera each chipped in with four-hit efforts as well.
Edwards opened the scoring for High Point, blasting his 14th homer of the season to lead-off the second inning for a 1-0 lead. Napleton followed suit, leading off the fourth inning with his fourth of the year, that staked the Rockers to a 2-0 lead.
Charleston made it a 2-1 game after four when Joseph Rosa walked and eventually scored on a ground out by Alsander Womack.
High Point stretched its lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Viera doubled and scored on a groundout by Alex Dickerson.
High Point starter Erich Uelmen (W, 4-3) held the Dirty Birds to four hits and one run over his five innings of work.
The Rockers broke the game open with a seven-run seventh inning that included Edwards’ grand slam, an RBI double from Ian Yetsko and a run-scoring single from Viera.
Kyle Halbohn tossed a shutout sixth inning and David Hess was touched for a pair of runs in the eighth but struck out four in his two innings of work.
Anthony Diaz (L, 2-3) yielded six hits and three runs over his 4.2 innings of work.
Charleston scored five runs over the final two innings including a two-run homer from Rosa and a three-run homer from James Nelson.
The Rockers will return to High Point and open a nine-game home stand on Tuesday, August 19. High Point will host Lexington in six games from Tuesday through Sunday and after taking August 25 off, Charleston will visit Truist Point for three games from August 26-28.
NOTES: The Rockers placed RHP Mike Devine on the injured list on Sunday . . . Edwards’ two homers were his first since re-joining the Rockers earlier this week after a two-month stint in the Los Angeles Angels farm system . . . Ian Yetsko extended his hitting streak to seven games . . . He was nine-for-22 (.409) in five games against Charleston . . . Rockers manager Jamie Keefe served a one-game suspension on Sunday after his third ejection of the season . . . Keefe served as the analyst alongside play-by-play broadcaster Brendan Howe on the broadcast.
