No. 4 Gaston College completes historic Region 10 title run with 50 victories

No. 4 Gaston College closed out its Region 10 schedule with a three-game sweep of USC Lancaster - and a record for victories in region play while also becoming the school's third 50-game winner in the past four seasons.

The Rhinos improved to 50-3 overall while finishing their Region 10 slate with a 27-3 mark at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park. It's the most Region 10 wins in history and surpasses the 26-4 records of USC Sumter in 2009 and Florence Darlington Tech in 2025.

Gaston College previously has won 50 games in 2023 (50-13 record) and 2024 (51-8).

The Rhinos won 5-4 in the Saturday's opener of a doubleheader, took an 11-0, 5-inning decision in Saturday's nightcap before rallying from an early deficit to take a 19-11, 8-inning victory in Sunday's series finale.

In Sunday's game, the Rhinos tied a school record with with eight home runs as they overcame deficits of 9-2 after 1 1/2 innings and 11-8 after 3 1/2.

"They kinda jumped us a little bit," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said of Sunday's game. "But it was good to see how we responded. There wasn't any panic and guys kept plugging away and having good at-bats.
"From the third inning on, our bullpen came and kept throwing up zeroes to give our offense a chance to work."

Logan Ponnett (6 hits, 2 home runs, 5 RBIs), Gabe Simmons (6 hits, double, 2 home runs, 8 RBIs), Joey Nicholson (5 hits, 3 home runs, 6 RBIs), Tyler Cook (5 hits, 2 home runs, 3 RBIs), Koy Swanson (4 hits, double, home run, 4 RBIs) and Caden Davidson (3 hits, 2 RBIs) led Gaston College's weekend offense that struck for 35 total hits.

On Sunday, Ponnett and Nicholson hit two home runs while Simmons, Swanson, Cook and Chris Hendrickson also had homers in tying the record of eight four-baggers in a win at USC Salkehatchie last weekend.

Nick Diehl's two-run fifth inning single was the difference in the series opener with Cook and Nicholson hitting walkoff home runs in the fifth and eighth inning, respectively, to close out the last two games by the mercy rule.

On the mound, Gaston College used 12 pitchers in the series as they look to get their rotation situated for next weekend's double-elimination Region 10 tournament in Lexington, S.C.

Relievers Cooper Phillips (Game 1) and Chase Ghantt (Game 3) and starter Brayden Hill (Game 2) picked up the pitching victories.

Before playing in the Region 10 tournament, the Rhinos play their regular season home finale on "Sophomore Day" at Sims Legion Park at 3 p.m. on Tuesday against Rockingham Community College.

"We've talked ever since the start of the season about our goals," Doty said. "One of those was to win the regular season championship and the other one was winning 50 regular season games. So I'm just really proud of our team and what we've accomplished - and we still have more to accomplish ahead of us."