HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point Rockers jumped on top early and never took their foot off the gas pedal in defeating the Gastonia Ghost Peppers 8-1 in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the Atlantic League’s South Division Playoffs on Thursday night at Truist Point.
The Rockers will now move on to face the York Revolution in the League Championship Series which begins at York on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The championship series will feature the two teams that finished with the best full season record in the Atlantic League at 74-52.
The Rockers took a 2-0 lead in the first when Drew Mendoza singled to left and came around to score on Evan Edwards’ triple to right field. Alex Dickerson followed with a soft single to center to bring home Edwards.
High Point grew its lead to 3-0 in the second inning following a walk to D.J. Burt, a single by Luis Gonzalez and a run-scoring single from Mendoza.
Gastonia tallied its first run in the top of the fourth. High Point starter Fin Del Bonta-Smith (W, 1-0) walked Cole Roederer who moved to third on a double by Carter Aldrete and scored on a sac fly from Dalton Guthrie.
Gonzalez blasted a homer off the video board in right in the fourth as the Rockers surged to a 4-1 lead. It was his second homer of the series.
Del Bonta-Smith went five innings, allowing one run on four hits while walking one and striking out four, never allowing more than one base runner in any inning. Yuhi Sako came on in the sixth and pitched a 1-2-3 inning before yielding to Kyle Halbohn in the seventh who pitched around one hit.
The Rockers blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs on four hits and a walk. Mendoza, Aklinski and Dickerson all had run-scoring singles as the Rockers went up 7-1. Aidan Brewer scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to make it 8-1.
Jameson McGrane allowed one hit in the ninth in closing out the win.
Zac Westscott (L, 0-1) started for Gastonia and went three and one-third innings, allowing eight hits, four runs, a walk and one strikeout.
The Rockers are seeking to become the first High Point professional baseball team to win a championship since the 1968 High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms won the Carolina League championship. The last Triad area team to win a baseball championship was the Greensboro Grasshoppers who won the 2011 South Atlantic League title over the Savannah Sand Gnats.
NOTES: This was the third Game 5 between High Point and Gastonia in the postseason . . . The Rockers won Game 5 in the 2022 South Division Championship Series with an 8-7 win while Gastonia won the 2023 SDCS with a 9-3 victory . . . The Rockers have now reached the playoffs in four of their six seasons in the Atlantic League . . . The Rockers have made one League Championship appearance, losing in three games to Lancaster in 2022.
Rockers home runs (exit velocity-distance): Luis Gonzalez (107-406)
