Five HR lead Rockers to win

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The High Point Rockers used the long ball to derail the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars 8-2 on Sunday afternoon at Meritus Park. The Rockers blasted five home runs with Clayton Mehlbauer hitting two, each to dead center field, in winning their seventh straight game.

The Rockers improved to 7-1 in the second half and continue to hold a two-game lead over Gastonia (5-3) in the Atlantic League’s South Division second half pennant race.

The Rockers scored three times in the third when Ben Aklinski singled and Connor Owings followed with a homer, his third consecutive game with a round-tripper. After a Quincy Latimore groundout, Evan Edwards followed with a solo homer to give High Point a 3-0 lead.

Mehlbauer added a solo homer leading off the fourth inning to put the Rockers in front 4-0.

The Boxcars tallied a pair of runs off Rockers’ starter Cam Bedrosian (W, 5-1) in the fourth. Welington Dotel coaxed a two-out walk in front of back-to-back doubles by Dariel Gomez and Blake Berry.

High Point extended the lead to 5-2 when Gilberto Jimenez led off the top of the seventh with a solo homer, his first as a Rocker.

Bedrosian went five innings, yielding four hits and two runs while striking out six. Garrett Schilling, Will Carter and Zach Vennaro each threw a shutout inning in relief.

Hagerstown starter Anthony Rodriguez (L, 0-3) allowed eight hits,  three walks and four runs in his 4.2 innings of work.

Mehlbauer added his second homer of the game in the eighth to extend High Point’s lead to 7-2, driving in Brian Parreira who had drawn a two-out talk. High Point added a run in the ninth when Aklinski walked, stole second, went to third when a pick-off throw from the catcher rolled into center, and scored on a check-swing single by Edwards that rolled slowly up the third baseline and never crossed the foul line.

Nate Espelin, a lefty who signed with the Rockers earlier this week, retired Hagerstown in order in the ninth to highlight his first professional outing.

Edwards finished with three hits and a pair of RBI while Mehlbauer had three runs driven in on his two homers. Owings added two hits and two RBI.

The Rockers will enjoy an off-day on Monday and then begin a three-game series at York on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

NOTES: The Rockers have now won seven straight games, their second-longest of the year… The longest was an eight-game streak from June 8-16… In a statistical oddity, the Rockers had 11 base hits in 36 at-bats in each of the three games at Hagerstown… The Rockers had 15 extra base hits in the series including seven doubles and eight home runs.