Gaston College gets rankings in 3 polls as it rolls to 3 straight impressive victories

Gaston College's baseball team suffered a rare home loss in Saturday's opener of a three-game Region 10 series against USC Union.

But the Rhinos needed only nine total innings of action to emphatically respond with a pair of "mercy rule" victories for a 2-1 series victory. And they followed that up with another "mercy rule" victory, this time by a 14-2 score in seven innings at Rockingham Community College.

"I thought we've played the last three games a little more like we're capable of," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said.

The recent results have improved Gaston College to 18-7-1 overall and 5-4 in Region 10 while also gaining national attentions in three polls; The Rhinos are No. 11 in the JBB.net poll, No. 16 in the Perfect Game poll and No. 17 in the Dream Big Athletics polls that have been released in the last two days.

In the weekend series, USC Union entered atop the Region 10 standings with 17-1 overall and 5-1 region records.

The visiting Bantams improved on that record with a 7-2 win in Saturday's opener before Gaston College won 13-2 and 11-0 in 4 1/2 innings of action apiece in Saturday's doubleheader nightcap and Sunday's single game.

"We had a good response," Doty said. "I told our guys afterward that I'm not used to winning two out of three at home and feeling good about it. Our level of expectations when we're at home are higher. But I can't say enough about the bounce-back yesterday and today were on the barrel from the beginning."

Gaston College's starting pitchers were impressive in each outing.

Even in the opening game loss, left-hander Noah Zimmerman struck out nine in six innings and three of the six runs he yielded were unearned.

Conner Frail and Daniel Parris followed up with complete game efforts; Frail threw a four-hitter with seven strikeouts and Parris threw a two-hitter with eight strikeouts in 58 pitches.

"That was Daniel's second straight outing where he's been dominant," Doty said. "He's been able to throw three pitches in the zone."

Offensively, Brandon Crabtree (6 hits, 3 home runs, 8 RBIs), Clay Hendrickson (5 hits, home run, 1 RBI), Koy Swanson (3 hits, 2 doubles, home run, 4 RBIs), Koy Swanson (3 hits, double, 2 home runs, 4 RBIs) and Joey Nicholson (2 hits, home run, 2 RBIs) all had big weekends.

In Tuesday's win, the Rhinos scored in six of the seven innings capped by a six-run seventh inning.

Koy Swanson (3 hits, triple, home run, 3 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (2 hits, home run, 2 RBIs), Joey Nicholson (2 hits, double, 1 RBI), Brandon Crabtree (2 hits, double), Jackson Toberman (double, triple, 2 RBIs), Daniel Parris (2 hits, double, 3 RBIs), Holden Cooper (2 hits, double) and Elijah Grant (2-run home run) led the 17-hit offensive attack.

And Alex Sobol, Clayton Sherwood, Terry Kaler, Jake Young, Alex Tawa, Cross Clayton and Nick Diehl combined on a four-hitter with Sobol striking out the side, Sherwood, Kaler, Young and Diehl striking out two each and Young being credited with the pitching victory.

The Rhinos return to Region 10 action with a three-game series at USC Salkehatchie before a 13-game homestand at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park that begins with a 2 p.m. March 19 game against Cleveland Community College.

"We've got some work to do this weekend and now there's some uncertainty about when we're playing because of the forecast," Doty said. "We've got three games to play and they're three conference games so they're important."