No. 19 Gaston College completes road sweep to increase winning streak to 16
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Gaston College | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 1 |
|
Brunswick Community College | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
No. 19 Gaston College's softball team continued surging with a 16th straight victory in a pair 8-3 wins at Brunswick Community College.
The 16-game winning streak is second-longest in school history - and trails only last year's 29-game winning streak during a season in which the Rhinos finished fourth in the National Junior College Athletic Association championship tournament in Yuma, Ariz.
"It was two good road wins," said Gaston College coach Michael Steuerwald, whose team improved to 32-3 overall. "Brunswick is a really solid club with four or five good bats and two good pitchers."
Mary Hinson (6 hits, 2 doubles, 1 RBI), Mallie Courson (3 hits, triple, 5 RBIs), Arissa Duff (2 hits, double, home run, 2 RBIs), Jalyn Kopp (2 hits, double) and Sophia Crist (2 hits) led the offense.
And relievers Crist (4 1/3 innings, 6 strikeouts) and Aidan Ledbetter (5 2/3 innings, 7 strikeouts) picked up the pitching victories for the Rhinos.
"In the first game, we did a good job of attacking and getting on the board early to put pressure on them," Steuerwald said. "Crist came on in relief and was pretty 'lights out' until the last inning and pitched really well.
"In the second game, offensively we left a lot of runners on early and were down 3-1. It was looking like one of those days because we had left the bases loaded twice and two runners on in two of the first five innings.
"And then (Emery) Skinner had a big walk to lead off the sixth and Duff hit a home run to tie it at 3 and then we just got the ball rolling to stretch the lead out a good bit.
"Aidan came in and was 'lights out' to get the win and get out of a couple of jams."
Now Gaston College gets a rare weekend off before playing four doubleheaders in five days starting with next Wednesday's 1 p.m. doubleheader at East Georgia State.
"We'll have a couple of days off and then a big week coming up," said Steuerwald, whose team is 4-0 in Region 10. "We've got eight games in five days and six of them are conference games. So it'll be a big week for us and gives us a chance to create some separation for us in the standings."