HIGH POINT, N.C. – Ljay Newsome made 14 starts for Gastonia in 2025. He dealt six innings in just one of those starts – on July 31 against Hagerstown, a game in which he surrendered three runs.
The right-hander managed to have his best outing of the year in Game 4 of the South Division Championship Series, allowing just two runs over six frames and carrying Gastonia to a 4-2 victory, as the Ghost Peppers managed to stave off elimination and force a Game 5.
The Gastonia win ties the series at 2-2 and forces a deciding Game 5 at 7:00 p.m. Thursday night at Truist Point. The winner will advance to the ALPB League Championship Series to meet the York Revolution.
High Point scored twice in the first inning. After Luis Gonzalez led off the bottom of the first with a single, Newsome (W, 1-0) walked Ben Aklinski. With two outs, Alex Dickerson lined a single to left to score both runners and give the Rockers a 2-0 lead. Newsome was able to settle down afterwards, retiring eight straight and 13 out of 14 batters following Dickerson’s knock. The former Seattle Mariner gave up just three hits in the quality start, handing over a 3-2 lead to the ‘pen.
How’d Gastonia manage to get the lead?
Carter Aldrete tied the game with a two-run homer in the fourth. Aldrete hit a line drive that was just high enough to clear the wall in left, evening up the score with his second homer of the series. The Peppers went in front an inning later, when Eric De La Rosa knocked in Narciso Crook with a double to left-center field. Crook was going on a full count with two outs, and De La Rosa’s two-bagger made it 3-2 Gastonia in the fifth.
De La Rosa also helped with an insurance run in the eighth inning. He tripled off Luis Gonzalez’s glove as the right fielder leapt at the wall, and then scored on Justin Wylie’s sac fly to right.
Newsome handed over the lead to Duane Underwood Jr., who faced the minimum through two innings. Tyler Wilson came on for the ninth and locked down the save, dealing a 1-2-3 frame in the Ghost Peppers’ 4-2 win.
Gastonia tied the series at two games apiece, setting up a win-or-go-home Game 5 on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
