Latimore lifts Rockers past Legends
Jun. 25—HIGH POINT — Quincy Latimore wasn't disappointed that he narrowly missed hitting his second home run of the game for the Rockers on Friday.
He still made the difference for High Point in a 2-1 victory over the Lexington Legends before an announced crowd of 2,801 at Truist Point..
Latimore, who tied the score 1-1 by leading off the seventh with a homer, came to the plate with the bases loaded in the eighth after Johnny Field and Ben Aklinski each singled and Jerry Downs walked.
Latimore smashed a drive to right field that briefly looked as if it might leave the park for a grand slam. Instead, it was caught by the right fielder Phillip Ervin just short of the wall.
Field easily scored what proved to be the winning run. Aklinski was also waved home but was thrown out at the plate.
"I just wanted to get something to the outfield and make sure I got a run in," Latimore said. "I got a good swing on it and I thought for a second that I was going to burn them for some more. Ben came around there hot and if the throw had been, he'd have been in there, too."
He added: "I was just looking for something I could drive to the outfield. I wanted to stay in the middle of the field. I've been coming around on the ball some. I grounded out to third earlier in the game. I told the guys I'm going to stay in the middle of the field, let the ball get to me and drive it that way. I did and had some good success with it, man."
The two-RBI outing upped Latimore's total for the season to a team second-best 36.
"Forty seconds before he hit it, he said he was going that way, that he was going to get one and get it up," Rockers manager Jamie Reefe said of Latimore's sacrifice fly. "The guy needs a hug man. He's been struggling a little bit. He's carried us for parts of three years. That's what we needed tonight and we needed him to smile."
Keefe didn't hesitate in giving Aklinski the green light as he rounded third.
"We got the one," Keefe said. "The outfielder's back was to me as he was catching it and he was still running away. (Aklinski) got a great jump off second. He didn't need to look up because he was going to go. He took a great run around third and got thrown out. We only needed one."
The win gave the Rockers consecutive victories for the first time since June 1-2 as they improved to 32-25. The team arrived in High Point around 19:30 a.m. after riding all night after Thursday's doubleheader at Long Island.
Craig Stem (1-2), who didn't make the Long Island trip, went eight innings in picking up the win. He gave up a solo homer to Isaias Tejada in the top of the seventh that broke a scoreless tie, struck out five, allowed four hits and walked three.
"They put it in play a lot," Keefe said. "That team, we know they can swing. When you get them in swing mode and his two-seamer is going away from them, he can have some fun with them and he was able to do that tonight."
Stem faced the minimum number of batters in the second, third,fifth and eighth. He was helped by three double plays. Ryan Dull pitched a perfect ninth in getting a save.
"You put the ball in play on us and we keep the walks down, we're going to be in every game," Keefe said.
Lexington starter J.J. Hoover was charged with both Rocker runs and was the losing pitcher. Hoover, who allowed five hits, was lifted after loading the bases in the eighth and was replaced by Jalen Miller, who struck out Xander Wiel before Latimore came to the plate.
The teams meet again today at 6:35 p.m.
