Charleston 12, Gastonia 10
Charleston, WV – September 21, 2024) – The Dirty Birds defeated Gastonia Saturday night to advance to the Atlantic League Championship Series. This marks the first championship appearance since 2008.
The Dirty Birds defeated Gastonia 12-10 in game four after trailing 7-0 in the second inning. Stevie Ledesma earned the win after throwing 4.1 scoreless innings. Ledesma was named the Southern Division MVP. In Charleston’s game one win, he threw three scoreless innings in extra innings.
Charleston scored their 12 runs off 17 hits. Phillip Ervin hit two home runs while Rusber Estrada and Keon Barnum had one home run.
The Atlantic League Championship Series begins Tuesday, September 24 in Charleston against the York Revolution. Wednesday will also be at GoMart Ballpark. York will host games three, four, and five Friday-Sunday.
The Dirty Birds would like to extend a thank you to GoMart for being their official playoff sponsor. For more information about the playoffs, go to dirtybirdsbaseball.com
York 9, Lancaster 2
(September 21, 2024 – York, Pa.): After a tough defeat on Friday night, the York Revolution bounced back to take Game Four of the North Division Series behind three longballs and a stellar pitching performance by Michael Horrell, winning 9-2 over the Lancaster Stormers to clinch the series three games to one. Alerick Soularie belted two of York’s three long balls to power the offense, being named series MVP after a huge performance across the four games. York will now play for their first championship since 2017 as they’ll face the Charleston Dirty Birds in the Atlantic League Championship Series beginning on Tuesday night in West Virginia.
Alerick Soularie blasted a two-run shot over the Arch Nemesis against Stormers starter Max Green to open the scoring in the bottom of the second.
Horrell was spectacular on the hill, retiring the first seven he faced on the night including six ground ball outs. After a pair reached with one out in the third, the righty rolled up a 4-6-3 double play to end the frame.
With two outs in the fifth, David Washington narrowly missed a solo shot to left-center field, instead settling for a deep double. Soularie made sure to pick him up, hammering his second two-run shot of the game to left field, doubling York’s lead to 4-0.
Horrell capped off his dominant outing with a perfect sixth, firing six shutout frames while allowing just one hit.
Lancaster reliever AJ Alexy retired the first two hitters in the bottom of the sixth inning before issuing back-to-back walks to Jacob Rhinesmith and Alfredo Reyes. Roldani Baldwin made him pay, crushing yet another home run over the Nemesis, a three-run shot to make it 7-0 Revs.
Lancaster got a broken bat bloop RBI single from Shawon Dunston Jr with two outs in the seventh to break up the shutout, but it was a rare highlight for the visitors as their offense whimpered to the finish line.
The Stormers loaded the bases against Dan Kubiuk in the eighth, but the righty got Joe Stewart looking to strand all three, striking out the side in the inning.
York loaded the bases with nobody out in their half of the eighth and got two runs on a double play grounder followed by a Baldwin single to left as the Revs backstop joined Soularie with four RBI on the night.
Up 9-1, York went to Matt Turner to shut the door. The lefty allowed a run on three consecutive two-out infield singles, but ended the series with a bases loaded groundout to second base, locking down the 9-2 win.
The Revs will travel to Charleston to begin the League Championship series on Tuesday night in their first appearance in the final since 2017 and their fourth all-time. First pitch for Game One is set for 6:35 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 98.9 FM & 1350 WOYK,
989woyk.com, The New WOYK app, and FloBaseball.TV beginning at 6:15 p.m.
Notes: York finishes the season a combined 18-4 against Lancaster. The Revs have won a combined 10 of their last 12 games overall. Soularie went 7-for-13 with two homers, a double, a triple, and six RBI to take home Division Series MVP honors. He becomes the third player in Revs history to homer twice in a playoff game, joining Bryant Nelson (2011) and Telvin Nash (2019). The Revs clinch a postseason series victory for the seventh time in franchise history and fourth time at home. It marked their first series win in the playoffs since the 2017 championship. It was their 13th home playoff win all-time and first since the 2017 championship clincher, 2,550 days earlier. York has won two of its three postseason series all-time against Lancaster; the two clubs had not met in the postseason since 2012.
