No. 6 Gaston College sweeps Region 10 road series

Following huge weekend road series victory at Florence Darlington Tech last week to take control of the Region 10 race, some might have thought No. 6 Gaston College would be vulnerable this weekend at USC Sumter.

After all, the Fire Ants were one of only two league teams to beat the Rhinos this season.

Instead, Gaston College's outlasted USC Sumter in the opener then relied on their high-scoring offense to compete an impressive three-game sweep with 4-2 and 16-4 victories in Friday's doubleheader and a 14-3 win on Saturday afternoon.

"Coming off the Florence series, you worry about a letdown," said Rhinos coach Shohn Doty, whose team improved its record to 38-3 overall and 18-3 in Region 10 action. "But I thought our guys played great. So now it's time to take a deep breath, enjoy a day off and get back at it on Monday."

The Rhinos conclude a seven-game road trip with Tuesday's 1 p.m. at Rockingham Community College before closing out their regular season with eight of their last 12 contests at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park beginning with next weekend's three-game series against USC Union (1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday and 1 p.m. game on Sunday).

Gaston College's offense banged out 36 hits, including eight home runs at spacious and historic Riley Park.

"After a close game in the opener, we really got on the barrel and we continued to hit it good today," Doty said. "And we were good in all three phases. I'm proud of our guys because that's a really hard to place to sweep."

Gaston College entered the series with a 3-2 all-time record at USC Sumter.

In the weekend sweep, Caden Davidson (7 hits, 2 home runs, 4 RBIs), Logan Ponnett (6 hits, 3 doubles, 2 home runs, 8 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (5 hits, double, home run, 3 RBIs), Gabe Simmons (4 hits, double, 2 home runs, 5 RBIs), David Nicks (4 hits, home run, 6 RBIs), Joey Nicholson (3 hits, double, 5 RBIs) and Koy Swanson (3 hits, 4 RBIs) led the offense.

On the mound, 10 different pitchers limited USC Sumter to nine runs and 19 hits led by opening game starter and winner Jack Aurelius and relievers Dalton Hazlett and Gavin Aldredge. Hazlett worked a pair of one-inning stints with two strikeouts and picked up a save in the opener and Aldredge also worked twice for two total innings and picked up the victory in Saturday's series finale.