Top-ranked Gaston College sets school record for consecutive wins in Saturday DH sweep

Top-ranked Gaston College set a school record for consecutive wins as it picked up its fifth straight Region 10 Division I doubleheader sweep on Saturday in 8-1 and 7-5 victories over USC Salkehatchie at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.

The Rhinos, ranked No. 1 by Dream Big Athletics the last two weeks and No. 2 the last four weeks by the National Junior College Athletic Association and 2-Year Baseball, improved to 33-2 overall and 10-0 in Region 10 with its 24th consecutive victory.

Saturday's victories broke a tie in school history as the Gaston College won its final three games in 1972 before discontinuing athletics and its first 19 games in 2022 when it retarted athletics for a 22-game winning streak.

"It's a credit to our kids because 24 in a row says a lot," Rhinos head coach Shohn Doty said.

Gaston College got efficient efforts from starters and winners Mason Smith and Evan Vandenbosch in the sweep.

Smith retired the first 10 batters he faced before settling for a two-hit complete game with five strikeouts to improve to 6-0 this season in a 76-pitch effort.

Evan Vandenbosch also went 76 pitches while staying unbeaten (5-0) with six innings, four strikeouts and five runs (one earned).

"I thought we got two really good starts which kind of carried the day," Doty said. "We gave up too many unearned runs in the second game which leaves no margin for error.
"Overall, I think we'll show up and play better tomorrow."

Offensively, Seth Christmas (3 hits), Tyler Burke (3 hits), Trent Murchison (2 hits), Trevor Lucas (2 hits), Ben Karpowicz (2 hits) and Cale Estes (2 hits) led a group that had 17 hits and drew 12 walkts and three hit batters.

Karpowicz had two doubles and Freddie Oliver had a two-run single in the opener and Sean Sullivan had a RBI double and Ethan McNally drove in a run with a suicide squeeze bunt in the nightcap.

"At the end of the day, you win two ballgames and you're 10-0 in the league and you've got a chance to keep the streak going at home tomorrow and again next weekend,' Doty said ."We've just got to reset a little bit and have the mindset of 'finishing' so we can sweep another series."

After Sunday's 1 p.m. home doubleheader with USC Salkehatchie to finish up the current four-game series, the Rhinos are off until Friday and Saturday 1 p.m. home doubleheaders against Spartanburg Methodist.