Though the Charleston Dirty Birds are currently leading the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball’s South Division (as of Wednesday night) with a league-best record, their upcoming opponent for this weekend might just have them exactly where they want them.

For the second time in this young season, Charleston and the High Point Rockers will square off as part of a three-game series with potentially important implications in the South’s first-half title race. 

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During their first go-round April 30-May 2, High Point took Game 1 over Charleston with a shutout victory before the Dirty Birds stormed back to take the final two games and the series. Charleston’s 13-5 record following Wednesday’s games is the best in the ALPB, but successive defeats to Gastonia in which it let up a combined 30 runs in two games could indicate a weak point for the Rockers (currently 10-8, and three games back of Charleston) to exploit.

All three matchups in the upcoming Dirty Birds-Rockers series — at 6:35 p.m. Friday, 6:35 p.m. Saturday, and 4:05 p.m. Sunday (all Eastern Time) — will be streamed live on FloBaseball, the exclusive streaming home of ALPB baseball all season long.

Charleston Dirty Birds Scores

• April 25: Charleston Dirty Birds 6, Staten Island FerryHawks 4
• April 26: Charleston Dirty Birds 6, Staten Island FerryHawks 5
• April 27: Charleston Dirty Birds 4, Staten Island FerryHawks 6
• April 28: Charleston Dirty Birds 14, Staten Island FerryHawks 7
• April 30: Charleston Dirty Birds 0, High Point Rockers 8
• May 1: Charleston Dirty Birds 12, High Point Rockers 5
• May 2: Charleston Dirty Birds 2, High Point Rockers 0
• May 3: Charleston Dirty Birds 2, Gastonia 1
• May 4: Charleston Dirty Birds 1, Gastonia 6
• May 5: Charleston Dirty Birds 8, Gastonia 7
• May 7: Charleston Dirty Birds 9, Lexington Legends 6
• May 8: Charleston Dirty Birds 4, Lexington Legends 3
• May 9: Charleston Dirty Birds 7, Lexington Legends 5
• May 10: Charleston Dirty Birds 9, Lexington Legends 2
• May 11: Charleston Dirty Birds 11, Lexington Legends 10
• May 12: Charleston Dirty Birds 18, Lexington Legends 13
• May 14: Charleston Dirty Birds 7, Gastonia 11
• May 15: Charleston Dirty Birds 9, Gastonia 19

High Point Rockers Scores

• April 25: High Point Rockers 7, Lexington Legends 6
• April 26: High Point Rockers 5, Lexington Legends 2
• April 27: High Point Rockers 19, Lexington Legends 7
• April 28: High Point Rockers 4, Lexington Legends 2
• April 30: High Point Rockers 8, Charleston Dirty Birds 0
• May 1: High Point Rockers 5, Charleston Dirty Birds 12
• May 2: High Point Rockers 0, Charleston Dirty Birds 2
• May 3: High Point Rockers 2, York Revolution 6
• May 4: High Point Rockers 2, York Revolution 8
• May 5: High Point Rockers 5, York Revolution 1
• May 7: High Point Rockers 5, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 8
• May 8: High Point Rockers 9, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 1
• May 9: High Point Rockers 6, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 7
• May 10: High Point Rockers 3, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 5
• May 11: High Point Rockers 6, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 3
• May 12: High Point Rockers 9, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 2
• May 14: High Point Rockers 1, Lexington Legends 3
• May 15: High Point Rockers 7, Lexington Legends 1

How to Watch Atlantic League Baseball in 2024

Watch Atlantic League baseball on FloBaseball and the FloSports app.

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Players to Watch

Gabriel Cancel, INF, Charleston Dirty Birds

A former seventh-round choice in the MLB Draft who at one point reached Triple-A in the Kansas City Royals organization, Cancel — still only 27 — has proven thus far in his first season of play in the ALPB that he has a lot to offer in the independent league. Signing with Charleston in the offseason, the Puerto Rico native currently ranks second in the league (following Wednesday’s games) in RBIs with 20 and is currently riding a huge hot streak at the plate, tallying a total of 10 RBIs in his past four games alone with five home runs in that same stretch. 

In the Dirty Birds’ game Wednesday night against Gastonia, for instance, Cancel ripped two homers — taking the league lead in the process by going up to nine homers on the season — with four RBIs in what was ultimately a losing effort. Regardless, Cancel (now up to a .338 average on the year so far, coming back from a .240 mark on May 1) can’t be blamed as he’s done his part lately to try and win Charleston some more ball games. 

The final score for your Dirty Birds on this Tuesday night ⚾️ 😎 Holmes and Palmer Orthodontics Player of the Game, Gabriel Cancel, drove in 5 of the 9 runs for the Dirty Birds tonight 🤩 He hit his 3rd home run of the season, which was a grand slam 🔥#staydirty #DirtyBirds pic.twitter.com/RYOpoqF3d8

— Charleston Dirty Birds (@dirtybirdscwv) May 8, 2024

Nick Longhi, OF, High Point Rockers

Until Cancel broke the league home run race open with his two-homer night against Gastonia, Longhi was locked in a tie for the league lead in long bombs entering Wednesday’s games. Also a former Triple-A player (having reached that level with both the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies’ organizations), Longhi opted to go independent in 2022 by signing with Charleston — and he now gets to face his former team as a member of the Rockers this weekend. 

A solid power option at the plate with the Dirty Birds two years ago as he hit 10 home runs and 41 RBIs on .522 slugging across 56 games, Longhi is currently on pace to shatter his career-best marks in Indy ball as a first-year player at High Point with seven homers and 17 RBIs to date across just 14 games. Already holding three outings with three RBIs or more on the season, Longhi is a deep threat who could eat against Charleston’s pitching staff, which currently has the second-highest ERA (5.73) in all of the ALPB following Wednesday’s games, but he was held homerless in the two teams’ previous three-game series earlier in the year.

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