No. 4 Gaston College sweeps Region 10 home series
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
USC Union | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 2 |
|
Gaston College | 6 | 10 | 0 | 5 | X | 21 | 12 | 1 |
No. 4 Gaston College increased its winning streak to eight with an impressive three-game sweep of visiting USC Union on Saturday and Sunday at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.
The Rhinos (42-3, 21-3) remain atop the Region 10 standings with nine regular season games remaining.
"We want to win the regular season championship, which we haven't done since our first year in 2022 as a Division II school," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "It's important to our guys. It's something they can leave here having accomplished."
The Rhinos' explosive offense reached double figure runs for the fifth and sixth time in the current winning streak as they banged out 34 hits in the series sweep.
After winning 7-2 in Saturday's doubleheader opener, Gaston College took a pair of five-inning "mercy" rule victories - 19-1 in Saturday's nightcap and 21-6 in Sunday's contest.
Logan Ponnett (5 hits, double, 2 home runs, 5 RBIs), Gabe Simmons (5 hits, 2 home runs, 4 RBIs), Caden Davidson (4 hits, 2 doubles, 7 RBIs), Nick Diehl 4 hits, home run, 4 RBIs), Koy Swanson (4 hits, home runs, 5 RBIs), David Nicks (4 hits, double, 2 home runs, 9 RBIs) and Joey Nicholson (3 hits, 3 RBIs) led the Rhinos' offense.
On the mound, starters Jack Aurelius (5 innings, 6 strikeouts) and Brayden Hill (3 innings, 5 strikeouts) picked up the first two pitching victories with Travis Smith (1 2/3 innings) winning the series finale in relief.
"We're headed in the right direction and I like where we are," Doty said. "We're at Surry on Tuesday and then on the road one more time and then we get to finish conference at home."
After Tuesday's 2 p.m. game at Surry Community College and next weekend's Region 10 series at USC Salkehatchie, the Rhinos close the regular season with non-league home games against Caldwell Tech (April 21 at 1 p.m.) and Rockingham Community College (April 28 at 3 p.m.) wrapped around their Region 10 series finale against USC Lancaster (April 25 1 p.m. doubleheader and April 26 1 p.m. single game).