Jannis wins 14th, Rockers take South title

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – High Point pitcher Mickey Jannis tossed five innings, allowing five hits and two runs while striking out four in leading the Rockers to a 7-3 win at Long Island on Saturday night. Jannis, now 14-5 on the year, leads the Atlantic League in wins. In addition, the win gave the Rockers the Atlantic League’s South Division second half pennant, as the Rockers can now claim both the first and second half division championship.

Jannis’ strong pitching was supplemented by a potent offensive attack as the Rockers outhit the Ducks 12-6 as Quincy Latimore and Zander Wiel each homered.

The Rockers improved to 37-23 on the season while Gastonia, which Lexington 2-1 on Saturday, is 37-25. A loss on Sunday, even when coupled with a Gastonia win, would leave the Rockers with a winning percentage of .607 to the Honey Hunters’ .603.

Wiel homered to lead off the second inning to give High Point a 1-0 lead. Shed Long, Jr. would single home Daikan Yoh later in the same inning for a 2-0 Rockers lead.

Long Island tied the game in the bottom of the second as Joe DeCarlo singled home a run and another run came around on a Rockers throwing error.

High Point went up 4-2 in the fifth when Ben Aklinski was hit by a pitch and then scored on Latimore’s eighth homer of the year. It grew to a 5-2 lead in the seventh when Aklinski singled, stole second, moved to third on a throwing error and scored on a wild pitch.

The Ducks pulled to within 5-3 in the eighth on a Sam Travis RBI double. But the Rockers closed the scoring in the ninth on an RBI single by Brian Parreira and a wild pitch that scored Latimore who had reached on a walk.

Four relievers followed Jannis and allowed just one hit and one run. Justin Alintoff (L, 2-3) allowed seven hits and four runs over his five innings of work.

The Rockers will play the regular season finale on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. The game will be streamed live on FLO Baseball and also available on the Mixlr app.