No. 2 Gaston College starts and finishes strong in Region 10 tournament opener

No. 2 Gaston College started strong and finished stronger on Friday as it rolled past USC Lancaster 13-3 in five innings in the Region 10 baseball tournament at Lexington County, S.C. Stadium.

The Rhinos improved to 52-3 overall after scoring in every inning before closing out the win by the "mercy rule."

Gaston College scored twice in the first and second innings for a 4-0 lead before USC Lancaster closed within 4-3 after the top of the third inning. But the Rhinos scored five times in the third and twice more in the fourth and fifth innings to close out the win.

"From an offensive perspective, we were pretty relentless all day," said Rhinos coach Shohn Doty, whose team got Lancers' hurlers to use 149 pitches while walking six, hitting two batters and yielding 13 hits. "We were patient all day and got deep in the counts.
"We're playing good. It doesn't matter who we play, we've just got to play the way we're capable of playing and I like our chances."

Joey Nicholson (3 hits, 2 RBIs), Logan Ponnett (2 hits, home run, 2 RBIs), Caden Davidson (2 hits, double, 3 RBIs), David Nicks (2 hits, double, 2 RBIs) and Tyler Cook (2 hits, double, 2 RBIs) led Gaston College's offense with Cook's RBI double in the bottom of fifth inning ending the contest.

Starter and winner Brayden Hill (2 2/3 innings, 3 strikeouts) and reliever Gavin Aldredge (2 1/3 innings, 1 strikeout) handled the pitching chores.

Due to rain in the weather forecast, Gaston College's next game will now be at 1 p.m. Sunday against No. 9 Florence Darlington Tech in the winner's bracket final.

"We don't play again until Sunday so we'll get some guys off their feet for day and we'll go someplace to get in some hitting and our game will be a huge one," Doty said. "Right now, it's about being healthy and staying in a rhythm. We've been in a good rhythm all year and we've got to keep that going."

The Region 10 tournament results and schedule at Lexington County Baseball Stadium in Lexington SC:

(Friday, May 1)
Game 1- No. 4 USC Union vs. No. 5 USC Lancaster - USC Lancaster 9-3
Game 2- No. 3 USC Sumter vs. No. 6 USC Salkehatchie - USC Sumter 11-0 in 6
Game 3- No. 1 Gaston College vs. USC Lancaster - Gaston College 13-3 in 5
Game 4- No. 2 Florence Darlington Tech vs. USC Sumter - Florence Darlington Tech 6-1

(Saturday, May 2)
Game 5- USC Union vs. USC Salkehatchie, 2 p.m.
Game 6- USC Lancaster vs. USC Sumter, 5 p.m.

(Sunday, May 3)
Game 7- Gaston College vs. Game 4 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 8- Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 4:30 p.m.
Game 9- Game 8 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 7:30 p.m.

(Monday, May 4)
Game 10- Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 11 a.m.
(if necessary) Game 11- 3 p.m.