Late Blue Crab homer sinks Rockers

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point Rockers fell to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 3-2 on Thursday at Truist Point. Isaias Quiroz hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth to secure the win for the Blue Crabs.

High Point is now 25-12 and remains a half-game behind Gastonia (25-11) in the Atlantic League’s South Division. The Honey Hunters lost 4-2 at Charleston on Thursday night.

The Rockers were cruising along with a 2-0 lead until the eighth inning. In a well-pitched matchup between High Point starter Kyle Barraclough and So. Maryland starter Mitch Lambson, the Rockers were able to carve out a narrow lead. Shed Long, Jr. led off the bottom of the first with a solo homer for a quick 1-0 advantage. The score remained that way until the sixth when Ben Aklinski blasted a solo homer, his first in eight games, to stake the Rockers to a 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Barraclough was outstanding on the mound. He retired the side in order on 11 pitches in the first. In the second, the Blue Crabs’ David Harris singled and moved to third on a double by K.C. Hobson. But Barraclough, making his first start for High Point, struck out the last three hitters in the order to hold the Blue Crabs at bay.

Barraclough allowed a harmless double in the third and retired the side in order in the fourth and fifth, exiting after five innings and 58 pitches. Jeremy Rhoades pitched two innings for the Rockers and kept the Blue Crabs scoreless, allowing one hit, one walk, and striking out one.

The Blue Crabs scored two runs in the eighth off Taylor Guerrieri on a pair of walks, a hit batter, and a sacrifice bunt that went for a base hit when two Rockers infielders ran into each other.

With the lead gone, the Rockers turned to closer Ryan Dull in the ninth. Through his first 13 innings of the season, Dull had allowed just one hit and nary a run. But catcher Isaias Quiroz greeted Dull with a solo homer to left to put the Blue Crabs in front for the first time. x

Lambson went seven innings, giving up two runs and eight hits, while striking out five. James Dykstra (W, 2-1) put the Rockers down in order in the eighth to secure the win while Isaac Matson (S, 2) set down all three hitters he faced in the ninth to notch his second save of the year.

The Rockers will start a three-game series at Charleston on Friday at 6:35 p.m. at GoMart Ballpark.