Long Island Ducks Defeat Rockers in Game 1 Instant Classic

On a night where Long Island could have easily hung their head after blowing a 7-1 7th inning lead, they turned to the man who had come through for them the entire second half of the season and he delivered.

Deibinson Romero launched a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the 8th inning to give the Ducks the lead and closer Cody Mincey recorded a six-out save to give Long Island a 8-7 victory. The homer followed a wild six-run bottom of the 7th inning for the High Point Rockers that allowed them to tie the game.

Long Island started the scoring off in the top of the 3rd against former Ducks pitcher John Brownell with a RBI triple from Vladimir Frias to give them a 1-0 lead. Steve Lombardozzi followed with a two-run double to continue his hot hitting of late. After sacrifice flies from L.J. Mazzilli and Romero gave the Ducks a 5-0 advantage, Rockers slugger Quincy Latimore gave the home team some hope after hitting a solo blast. Then, the Ducks responded with RBI singles from Lew Ford and Mazzilli to extend the lead to six.

High Point’s wild rally in the 7th inning was helped out by four walks by Ducks pitchers, and one of them brought in a run courtesy of a Jared Mitchell bases loaded walk. Myles Schroder then lined a game-tying two-run single off Ducks reliever Rob Rogers to set the stage for Romero’s big blast.

Long Island now leads the series 1-0 and will look to put themselves in command of the series with a win Wednesday night in High Point. Long Island will send righty Vin Mazzaro (11-4, 3.61) to the hill. The veteran will oppose one of the Atlantic League’s best starting pitchers in righty Craig Stem (5-5, 2.89).