AtL High Point Rockers

Charleston Dirty Birds Edges High Point Rockers, 6-5

Published on May 25, 2024 under Atlantic League (AtL)
High Point Rockers News Release


CHARLESTON, WV - The High Point Rockers' furious late-inning comeback fell short, as the Charleston Dirty Birds walked off in extra innings with a 6-5 victory on Saturday night.

The Rockers got the scoring started in the top of the third inning on a solo blast from Ryan Grotjohn to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the frame, Charleston batted around while scoring three times, including a homer from Gabriel Cancel to tie the score at 1-1, and a pair of walks with the bases loaded to make it 3-1.

The Dirty Birds gathered another pair of runs through the middle frames to lift their cushion to 5-1, as Rockers starting pitcher Ryan Weiss struggled a bit, allowing five runs on the same number of hits through five innings.

With High Point down to their final three outs in the ninth, the Rockers put forth their most inspiring rally of the season. It started with consecutive walks drawn by Gavin Johns and Ryan Grotjohn, and another free pass taken by Martin Figueroa loaded the bases with one out. The next batter was Ben Aklinski, who lined a single to center that plated two runs and made the score 5-3. Another walk to Connor Owings re-loaded the sacks for Zander Wiel, who promptly laced a base hit to the outfield that brought in another pair of runs to knot the score at 5-5.

As the game went to extra frames, the Rockers started by moving the ghost runner to third on a swinging bunt, but were unable to drive him in, leaving the score tied headed to the bottom of the inning. In the home half, a strikeout and a walk led to Rusber Estrada getting an opportunity, as he belted a fly ball over the head of Aklinski in center field to walk it off for the Dirty Birds, 6-5.

The loss dropped the Rockers to 16-10 on the season and 2.5 games back of first place in the South division. They'll take part in their second double header in a week's span, with the first pitch scheduled for 4:05 in game one. High Point gives the ball to Ben Braymer in the first contest, followed by Neil Ramirez in the second matchup of the twin bill.

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Atlantic League Stories from May 25, 2024


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