Hagerstown rolls past Gastonia 13-4 in second-half opener

Hagerstown turned Gastonia’s quick start into a runaway, rallying from an early deficit to beat the Ghost Peppers 13-4 at Meritus Park in the teams’ first meeting of the season. The Flying Boxcars tied it in the second and took the lead for good in the third.

Gastonia opened with a punch in the first when Jace Rinehart cleared the bases with a three-run double off Robbie Baker. Eddie Leon, making his first professional start for Gastonia, worked through that opening frame, but Hagerstown answered in the second when Cristhian Rodriguez launched a three-run homer to erase the early gap. By the end of the third, the Boxcars had the lead as Jared Carr homered and Baron Radcliff followed with an RBI single.

Gastonia cut the margin to one in the fifth. Nate Scantlin hit his 19th home run of the year to give Gastonia a chance to reset the game. Hagerstown ended that window immediately in the home half of the inning, then blew the contest open with four runs in the sixth, highlighted by Robert Brooks’ two-run double. The Boxcars tacked on three more in the seventh to put the game out of reach long before the final out.

McKinley Moore gave Gastonia one clean frame of relief in the eighth, striking out the side, but by then the damage was complete.

The result landed one day after Hagerstown had already clinched the Atlantic League North Division first-half championship. The Boxcars finished the first half 41-22 and were the only Atlantic League club to win double-digit series in that stretch. They celebrated that title at Meritus Park in front of 2,720 fans after a 5-1 win over Lancaster on June 30.

Gastonia entered the night at 40-27 overall and 2-2 to begin the second half, but its pitching depth was tested again after the club signed right-handers Taylor Broadway and Louis Davenport on July 7, placed Nick Richmond on the inactive list and earlier released Evan Long and Ethan Lindow.