Casad shuts down Legends, 2-1

HIGH POINT, N.C. – High Point’s Gilberto Jimenez singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning to break-up a pitcher’s duel and give the Rockers a 2-1 win over Lexington on Thursday night at Truist Point. The win gives the Rockers a three-game sweep of the Legends.

High Point starter Cooper Casad (W, 2-1) and Lexington’s Dustin Beggs hooked up in a quick game that resulted in just seven total hits and was completed in a High Point franchise record 1:52.

Beggs held the Rockers to just one hit over his six innings of work, a double in the second inning. Beggs allowed two walks and struck out three.

Casad was also brilliant, going a career-high eight innings and holding the Legends to two hits and a single run. That run came in the second inning when Brady Whalen laced a lead-off single and Pedro Gonzalez followed with another single. A sac fly from Gavin Johns scored Whalen with Lexington’s lone run.

High Point forced a tie in the seventh inning against Lexington reliever Jett Lodes as Jake Washer was hit by a pitch with two outs. After moving to second on a wild pitch, pinch-hitter Brian Parreira stroked an RBI single to tie the game.  

In the eighth, facing Lexington reliever Victor Capellan (L, 0-1), D.J. Burt led off with a single and stole second base. Jimenez’s single put High Point in front 2-1. Dakota Chalmers put the Legends down in order in the ninth to earn his first save as a Rocker.

The Rockers will head to Hagerstown, Md. this weekend and will return home on Friday, July 19th to face off against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs at 6:35 p.m. at Truist Point.

NOTES: The duration of the game, 1:52, surpasses the previous fastest game of 1:57 set on April 30, 2019 at Somerset… Quincy Latimore has hit safely in all six games since his return to the Rockers… Right-fielder Gilberto Jimenez has hit in all five of his games since joining the team and is hitting a sizzling .476 with 10 hits in 21 at-bats… The Rockers are now 14-5 vs. Lexington this season and 7-2 at Truist Point… Cooper Casad’s eight innings of work tied his career high… He went eight innings vs. Southern Maryland and Long Island, both in 2021 with the Rockers… Rockers pitchers held Lexington to 11 hits over the three-game series, and just two runs… High Point took the series by scores of 5-0, 11-1 and 2-1… The previous mark for fewest runs allowed in a series was four against Somerset on July 5-7 of 2019.