Gastonia 9, Kentucky 4

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Gastonia Honey Hunters completed a three-game sweep of the Wild Health Genomes, taking the finale by a 9-4 score at Wild Health Field on Thursday night.

Gastonia had four players with multi-hit games, part of a 13-hit attack. Gastonia got a homer from Joseph Rosa, triples from Zach Jarrett and Reece Hampton and a double from Alex Holderbach.

Ian McKinney tossed five innings in the start, picking up his seventh win of the season for Gastonia(82-41, 37-20). The southpaw scattered a pair of hits, allowing three runs while striking out three batters on the night.

Euclides Leyer, Tim Naughton, Kent Klyman and Kaleb Bowman closed the game out for the Honey Hunters, as the win eliminated Wild Health(62-60, 27-29) from contention in the South Division second-half title hunt.

The win for Gastonia maintains their lead of 7.5 games over Lexington, as the Legends come to Caromont Health Park for the final three regular season home games of 2022.  Gastonia´s magic number to clinch the second half moves to three, as Gastonia seeks to win the South Division outright, needing a combination of Gastonia wins and Lexington losses to take the flag.

Reilly Hovis gets the ball for Gastonia against Lexington, with first pitch slated for 6:15pm. The Honey Hunters pregame show will air at 6:00pm on am1450 WGNC and 101.1fm. A streaming audio option is available at www.gohoneyhunters.com.

High Point 6, Lancaster 5
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Logan Morrison drove in four runs with a two-run homer and a two-run double to lead the High Point Rockers to a 6-5 win over the Lancaster Barnstormers Thursday night at Truist Point.

The win puts the Rockers at 67-56 overall and 28-29 in the second half. With the victory, the Rockers claimed the series 2-1 and moved closer to clinching a Wild Card berth into the Atlantic League playoffs. For that to happen, the Rockers need Gastonia to repeat as South Division champions. High Point is then in contention with both Lexington and the Genomes for the Wild Card berth. Following Thursday’s games, the Rockers hold a 4.5 game lead over Kentucky for the top wild card spot and a 6.5 game lead over Long Island.

Lancaster’s Trayvon Robinson lined a one-out homer in the top of the first to stake the Barnstormers to a 1-0 lead. Morrison answered with a home run off the top of the scoreboard with Michael Martinez aboard to put the Rockers in front 2-1. Lancaster tied the game at 2-2 in the third on a double by Trace Loehr and an RBI double from Robinson.

High Point took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third when Martinez singled, moved to second on a walk to Morrison and scored on Quincy Latimore’s single. The Rockers extended the lead to 4-2 in the fourth when Zander Wiel drew a lead-off walk, moved to second on a single by Ben Aklinski, stole third, then scored on Giovanny Alfonzo’s single.

Liam O’Sullivan (W, 4-5) went six innings for the Rockers and allowed two runs on just four hits. He walked one and struck out one before leaving after the sixth with a 4-2 lead.

Seth Frankoff came on for O’Sullivan in the seventh and allowed a solo homer to Jacob Barfield as Lancaster closed the gap to 4-3.

The Rockers took the lead to 6-3 in the seventh when Michael Russell doubled, move to third on an infield single by Martinez and both runners scored on Morrison’s double into the left field gap.

Frankoff walked three in the eighth and allowed a single and a run to score on a wild pitch as the ‘Stormers drew to within 6-5. But Tyler Higgins (S, 4) came on to escape the inning and then set Lancaster down in order in the ninth to earn the save.

Lanaster starter Erik Manoah, Jr. (L, 3-3) went five innings and allowed four runs on five hits while walking five and striking out four.

The Rockers will head to Lexington, Ky. to play a three-game weekend series with the Wild Health Genomes. With High Point holding a 4.5 game lead over the Genomes in the Wild Card race, the Rockers can extend that lead with a good weekend. Game time on Friday is set for 6:35 p.m. at Wild Health Field.

Long Island 13, York 8

(York, Pa., September 8, 2022) – The Long Island Ducks defeated the York Revolution 13-8 on Thursday evening in the final game of a four-game series at Peoples Bank Park.

 Long Island took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning versus York starting pitcher Josh Norwood thanks to a run-scoring groundout produced by Deibinson Romero that plated L.J. Mazzilli after he doubled with one away and an RBI base knock off the bat of Trevor Achenbach that drove in Alejandro De Aza who reached on an infield single earlier in the frame. York tied the ballgame at two in the last of the first against Ducks starter Chris Cepeda courtesy of a two-run base hit from Melky Mesa and jumped out in front 3-2 in the second on Troy Stokes’ sacrifice fly.

 The Flock sent nine men to the plate in the third, scoring six tines to open an 8-3 advantage, highlighted by bases loaded walks issued to Achenbach and Zach Racusin, and a grand slam home run to right center off the bat of Dustin Woodcock, his second four-bagger in as many nights.

 Carrying an 8-7 cushion into the sixth, the visitors scored three big insurance runs for an 11-7 advantage with Achenbach plating Mazzilli with a base hit for his third rib-eye steak of the ballgame and Racusin driving home a pair of his own with a single that scored Romero and Achenbach. Long Island finished the scoring out in the ninth frame thanks to an RBI infield single by pinch-hitter Phil Caulfield that scored Mazzilli and a wild pitch that enabled Caulfield to hustle down the line from third bast to give the game its final score of 13-8.

 Cepeda registered a no-decision after giving up five runs on eight hits (two home runs) in three and two-thirds innings on the mound, walking four and striking out two. Patrick Quinn (1-0) collected the win in relief, allowing two runs on one hit (one home run) in one and one-third innings of work, walking and striking out one. (Norwood (0-1) suffered the loss, surrendering seven runs on five hits in two and one third innings pitched, walking five and striking out two. Mazzilli, Romero, Jose Sermo, Achenbach, and Joe DeCarlo each had two hits en route to the victory.

Long Island returns home on Friday night to begin a three-game series against the Staten Island FerryHawks. Game time is slated for 6:35 p.m., with the Fairfield Properties Ballpark gates opening at 5:35 (5:20 for full season ticket holders). The first 1,500 fans in attendance will receive QuackerJack and Scoop Posters, courtesy of Newsday. It’s also an EBBS Craft Beer/Fountain Hard Seltzer Takeover at the ballpark and an Angela’s Pizza Friday! Right-hander Chris Pike (0-0, 9.00) gets the start for the Ducks against FerryHawks left-hander Augie Sylk (5-10, 5.57).

Lexington 13, Charleston 8

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Tilman Pugh hit a two-run homer, James Nelson added a solo shot and Darian Sandford became the Atlantic League’s all-time stolen base leader as the Lexington Legends defeated Charleston 7-3 on Thursday night at Appalachian Power Park.

Sandford stole three bases on the night to raise his career total to 291, surpassing the record of 290 set by Billy Hall of Somerset over four seasons between 2000-2005. Hall led the ALPB in steals in three consecutive seasons from 2000 through 2002 with a league record 104 swipes in 2000. Sandford is the only other Atlantic League player to claim three consecutive stolen base crowns, leading the league in 2018, 2019 and 2021 with a high of 82 in 2018. Sandford has spent time with Lancaster, York and Gastonia before joining the Legends earlier this summer.

Nelson and teammate Montrell Marshall each finished with three hits as part of the Legends’ 14-hit attack. Nick Heath had a pair of hits and two RBI for Charleston.

Jeff Thompson (W, 3-6) earned the victory with 4.1 innings of relief with four strikeouts. Angelo Barz (L, 0-1) started and allowed 11 hits and six runs in five innings for the Dirty Birds.

Southern Maryland 11, Staten Island 0