Eight straight as Rockers skate

LANCASTER, Pa. – Eight may be the magic number for the High Point Rockers. In Sunday afternoon’s 5-2 win over the Lancaster Stormers at Clipper Magazine Stadium, the Rockers won their eighth straight game and have now homered in eight consecutive contests.

Ryan Grotjohn continued to dominate opposing pitching, extending his hitting streak to 12 straight games by banging out four hits while scoring two runs and collecting an RBI.

The win helps set the stage for a huge three-game series with Gastonia that begins Tuesday night at CaroMont Health Park in Gastonia. High Point (31-16) trails division-leading Gastonia (32-15) by one game in the race for the South Division first half pennant. There are 16 games remaining for each team before the first half ends on July 5.

On Sunday at Lancaster, High Point took a 2-0 lead in the second inning as Grotjohn singled and then scored on a towering two-run homer from Connor Owings to right field.

Grotjohn extended the Rockers lead with an RBI single in the third, scoring Ben Aklinski who led off the inning with a double off the top of the wall in right-center.

High Point starter Taylor Guerrieri went three innings and allowed just two hits while walking one and striking out four. But he came out after apparently having suffered an injury after leaping for a ground ball up the middle. While Guerrieri was able to finish the inning, Jacob Edwards (W, 4-0) came on to start the fourth and allowed a run when Justin Farmer singled, moved to third on a single by Kyle Kasser and scored on a sac fly from Shawon Dunston, Jr.

In the sixth, High Point’s David McKay allowed a solo homer to Joseph Carpenter that cut High Point’s lead to 3-2 but Carpenter would be the final base runner of the game. High Point relievers Zach Vennaro (seventh inning), Braeden Ogle (eighth) and Garrett Schilling (S, 2) (ninth) all retired the Stormers in order.

High Point added a run in the eighth when Grotjohn tripled to right field, his fourth hit of the game, and scored on a Zander Wiel sac fly. Braeden Ogle tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth to keep the Rockers in front, 4-3.

Lancaster’s Jack Lobosky (L, 3-2) took the loss despite allowing just three runs over seven innings of work with no walks and four strikeouts.

The Rockers loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth on singles by D.J. Burt and Martin Figueroa and a walk to Evan Edwards off Stormer reliever Stephen Nogosek.  Aklinski reached on a fielder’s choice that brought home Grotjohn. Colin Moran then bounced into a 3-6-3 double play that left the Rockers with a 5-2 lead.

After an off day on Monday, the Rockers will meet the Gastonia Baseball Club for the first time this season. Each of the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday games are slated for a 7 p.m. first pitch. The Rockers will face Gastonia in nine of their next 15 games as the first half South Division crown will be decided on July 5.

NOTES: Grotjohn extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games with a four-for-four game . . . During his 12-game hitting streak, Grotjohn is hitting .534 (23-for-43) . . . LF Martin Figueroa had a tough day, getting hit by a pitch twice, bruising a knee when he ran into the wall in left chasing a foul ball, and then laying out for a diving catch in left . . . High Point has hit at least one home run in each of its last eight games.