Charleston outlasts Gastonia 16-13 in 11-inning slugfest

Charleston opened the second half by outlasting Gastonia 16-13 in 11 innings on July 4, a game that swung so many times it forced both clubs to manage damage almost every inning. The Charleston Dirty Birds took the first half of the new Atlantic League slate after the league’s 63-game opening half ended July 2 and the split-season race reset July 3, and this one immediately looked like a stress test for both bullpens and both dugouts.

Yassel Pino set the tone early for Charleston, drilling a two-run homer in the second inning and then adding a three-run blast in the third for a 5-0 lead. Gastonia answered fast with a three-run shot from Grant Lavigne, then Nate Scantlin tied the score in the fourth with a two-run single. James Nelson kept the Ghost Peppers in it with a four-hit night, and Jack Reinheimer added another homer as the game kept snapping back and forth instead of settling into any kind of rhythm.

Scantlin pushed Gastonia back in front in the eighth with a two-run homer, but Pino erased that swing with his third homer of the night in the ninth, a two-out, two-strike drive that forced extra innings. Charleston then took control in the 10th on an infield single by Narciso Crook and back-to-back two-run homers from Carlos De La Cruz and Jhon Nunez, only for Gastonia to answer with five runs in the bottom half and drag the game to the 11th.

That final frame became a test of command as much as power. Charleston drew free passes against Evan Long, and Gastonia turned to Caleb Cox for his professional debut after signing him on July 3. With the bases loaded and no outs, Cox responded with a strikeout, a flyout and another strikeout to keep the game alive, but the Ghost Peppers could not answer in their last turn. The league recap called it the “game of the year,” and it was already the first extra-inning game Gastonia had played that season.

Charleston’s 16-13 win also showed which lineup handled the second-half opening pressure better. Pino finished with three homers, Scantlin drove in key runs twice, and the Dirty Birds survived Gastonia’s biggest counterpunches to steal the opener in a park that had already seen plenty of close calls. The two clubs were set to meet again at 5:30 p.m. that night in Gastonia.