Late rally not enough for Rockers in loss to Gastonia

GASTONIA, N.C. – The High Point Rockers fell behind Gastonia 10-0 on Wednesday night before rallying late but coming up short in a 14-10 loss to the Honey Hunters at CaroMont Health Park. Gastonia managed 17 hits against six High Point pitchers and also took advantage of nine walks.

The Rockers are now 22-8 on the year while Gastonia improved to 20-9. High Point maintains a 2.5 game lead over the Honey Hunters in the Atlantic League’s South Division.

Gastonia scored six runs in the first and four in the second to build a 10-0 lead after three innings. Meanwhile, Gastonia starter Zach Mort (W, 4-0) held the Rockers to a lead-off walk to Michael Russell and a second inning single by Beau Taylor through the first three innings.

Gastonia did most of its damage against High Point starting pitcher Matt Solter (L, 0-1). Signed earlier in the day, the Atlantic League veteran allowed eight hits and nine runs in his 1.1 innings of work before giving way to reliever Bryce Hensley.

In the fourth, Michael Martinez tripled and then scored on a groundout by John Nogowski. Zander Wiel followed with a solo homer, his sixth of the season, to make it a 10-2 contest.

The Rockers scratched back two more runs in the fifth when Ryan Grotjohn singled and scored as Russell hit his second homer in as many nights to cut the deficit to 10-4. But the Honey Hunters were able to push across three more runs in the fifth and sixth to take a 13-4 lead.

High Point pulled to within 13-8 with four runs in the top of the seventh. Martinez hit a run-scoring double and Nogowski added a two-run double before Wiel finished the spurt with an RBI single.

Gastonia finished its scoring with a run in the ninth when J.C. Escarra singled home Jack Reinheimer for a 14-8 edge for the Honey Hunters.

Walks to Martinez and Tyler Blaum in the ninth and a single by Ben Aklinski loaded the bases against Gastonia reliever Jaime Schultz. Ryan Grotjohn singled to left to score two and pull High Point to within four at 14-10 but Schultz struck out John Daly to seal the win.

The Honey Hunters were led by Steven Sensley, Zach Jarrett, Reinheimer and Escarra who each had three hits. The Rockers had nine hits on the night including the two home runs by Russell and Wiel. Martinez scored three times for High Point and collected a double and a triple.

The Rockers and Honey Hunters will conclude the three-game series on Thursday at 6:35 p.m. at CaroMont Health Park.  The game will be streamed live on FloSports and MixLR will carry the Rockers’ audio broadcast of the game.