Sako shuts down Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – High Point’s Yuhi Sako threw eight innings of two-hit baseball and was supported by three home runs as the Rockers won their season-long fifth straight game with a 9-2 win over Staten Island at SIUH Community Park on Sunday afternoon.

The win pushes the Rockers to 5-4 in the second half and 34-38 for the season. Should Southern Maryland and Lexington lose on Sunday, the Rockers would be tied for first place in the Atlantic League’s South Division second half pennant race.

Sako (W, 5-5) was perfect through four innings until Brandon Wagner broke up the perfect game with a double to right leading off the bottom of the fifth. Sako allowed an infield single in the sixth and didn’t allow more than one base runner at a time until hitting two batters in the seventh. He set a career-high as a Rocker with 10 strikeouts and he did not walk a batter.

Over his last five starts, covering 34 innings, Sako has allowed just seven runs and three walks, winning three of those starts.

Dalton Hitt pitched the ninth when the FerryHawks scored their only two runs on a double by Anthony Abbatine and a two-run homer from Blake Rutherford.

High Point jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Ryan McCarthy led off the game by reaching on a dropped fly ball by shortstop Luis Garcia. Ivan Melendez then pounded a two-run homer to left, his ninth round-tripper of the season.

The Rockers duplicated the feat in the fourth when Melendez singled and scored on Nick Longhi’s 12^th homer of the season, staking the Rockers to a 4-0 lead.

Luke Napleton’s 17^th homer of the season, a solo shot in the sixth, propelled the Rockers to a 5-0 lead.

High Point grew its lead to 9-0 in the eighth on an RBI single by Nolan Watson, a run-scoring double from Aidan Brewer and a two-run double by McCarthy.

McCarthy, Melendez and Longhi all finished with two hits and two RBI. Skender and Watson each contributed a pair of hits as well.

The Rockers will have an off-day on Monday and start a six-game homestand with the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. at Truist Point. High Point will send LHP Kent Emanuel (2-0, 3.27) to the mound on Tuesday.

NOTES: LHP Ben Wereski, who had his contract purchased by the Cincinnati Reds on July 3, made his debut with the Class AA Chattanooga Lookouts by throwing six hitless innings against the Rocket City Trash Pandas on July 9. He walked two and struck out eight . . .