Gaston College pitcher Calvert Clark was one of three starting pitchers to pick up victories during last weekend's season-opening sweep.

Posted: Jan 31, 2024

Gaston College is on the national stage this weekend as it faces national power four times

A year ago when Gaston College hosted Walters State in an early season baseball doubleheader, the visitors were ranked No. 2 in the nation and host Rhinos were seeking respect.

If the preseason rankings for this year are any indication, Gaston College clearly got what it sought out of its matchups with Walters State a year ago.

It's because this weekend when the Rhinos (No. 14) meets the Senators (No. 5), both teams are ranked in the preseason polls and their 1 p.m. doubleheaders on Friday at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park and Saturday at Walters State will tell both teams where they are so far in the 2024 season.

"We're playing a great team that we have a great deal of respect for," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said of this weekend's games. "They play the right way and these games will tell us a lot about ourselves as a team."

Both teams come into the weekend series after impressive sweeps of opening weekend series; Gaston College outscored Guilford Tech 39-3 in three victories by the mercy rule and Walters State outscored USC Salkehatchie 35-11 in two victories by the mercy rule.

Gaston College, which has nine returnees from last year's 50-13 team, got spectactular pitching from nine different players led by starters and winners Mason Smith, Calvert Clark and Connor Frail (each went three innings).

Offensively, the Rhinos hit a collective .386 with six home runs and 27 walks in their three victories as seven players enter this weekend with batting averages of .429 or better - Ben Karpowicz (.625 average-3 home runs-7 RBIs), Andrew Muraco (.571-1-3), Seth Christmas (.500-1-4), Nick Lundquist (.500-0-4), Trevor Lucas (.444-1-5), Trent Murchison (.429-0-2) and Sean Sullivan (.429-0-0).

"I thought we played well," Doty said. "It gave us an opportunity to play a lot of guys, which is important.
"The recipe for success for us showed itself again: Get on base, create run-scoring chances and have solid defense and pitching."

After this weekend's series, Gaston College will remain at Gastonia's Sims Legion for 21 straight games until March 10. That starts with a 1 p.m. game against Fayetteville Tech on Feb. 7.