Napleton’s two homers power Rockers past Blue Crabs 11-3

Luke Napleton homered twice and drove in four runs as High Point turned a one-run game into an 11-3 rout at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland. The Rockers did not separate until the sixth inning.

High Point, which improved to 25-32, got five steady innings from left-hander Ben Wereski, who allowed only three hits and worked around the Blue Crabs’ lone early breakthrough. Wereski continued building back on a pitch count after an April injury.

The Rockers struck first in the third inning. Ryan McCarthy started the scoring sequence with an extra-base hit, D.J. Burt pushed the play forward, and Patrick Sanchez finished it with a single. Southern Maryland tied the game when Danny Bautista Jr. reached and scored on a Wereski wild pitch, but High Point answered in the fifth on Nolan Watson’s double and another Sanchez RBI single to take a 2-1 lead.

High Point sent 11 batters to the plate and scored eight times in the sixth, stringing together five hits and three walks. Alex Dickerson, McCarthy and Napleton all delivered run-scoring hits in the inning, and Napleton capped the burst with a three-run homer. It was the Rockers’ highest-scoring inning of the year.

Napleton added a solo homer in the ninth and finished the night with 12 on the season. The Blue Crabs fell to 38-19 and entered the game with their first-half South Division magic number down to six. High Point took a second straight game in the series. The Rockers followed Thursday’s win with a 12-3, five-inning victory Friday against the division leaders.