No. 4 Gaston College completes three-game sweep at Cleveland Community College

Call it extra incentive, or the growth of a budding rivalry, or the need to break out of a mild case of the doldrums, but No. 4-ranked Gaston College played this weekend's series with Cleveland Community College with an edginess.

The Rhinos must have remembered the last time they faced the Yetis on Feb. 12 at Sims Legion Park in Gastonia. Cleveland Community College won that game 6-5 and handed Gaston College its first loss of the season on its home field.

"They played great at our place and got the last win in the series, and our guys took that personally a bit, so maybe we wanted to prove a point," Rhinos coach Shohn Doty said after his team won Sunday's game in Shelby 18-4 in five innings.

The win gave Gaston College a 3-0 sweep of the weekend series after Saturday's pair of victories.

Doty also hopes his team has regained its sharpness after what he called "a pretty average weekend that we had last weekend."

Certainly, the Rhinos were on top of their game Sunday. They broke things open with a six-run scoring spree in the second inning and added six more in the fourth frame.

Seth Christmas (2-3, 4 RBIs, double), Freddie Oliver (2-4, 4 RBIs) and Brandon Crabtree (2-3, RBI) led a 12-hit Gaston College attack. And sparkplug Trent Murchison proved to be a catalyst again, singling in a run, walking three times and scoring four runs.

Not only did the Rhinos move runners on base, they took advantage of 14 walks given up by five Cleveland Community College pitchers.

In the second inning outburst, Murchison drew a bases-loaded walk to open the scoring. Christmas added a sacrifice RBI, Oliver delivered a two-run single, and Crabtree singled in a run.

In the fourth, Justin Smith doubled in a run, Christmas belted a two-run double, and Oliver ran his RBI total for the day to four with a single.

The fifth inning proved to be a highlight for local product Nathan Williams, a North Gaston alum. The sophomore infielder collected an RBI single as part of a four-run uprising.

On the mound, Rhinos starter Landon Carr worked four innings to get the win. The freshman pitcher gave up four hits and three runs, walked none and struck out six.

Wagner Morissette came out of the bullpen to pitch the bottom of the fifth.

With the regular season winding down, Doty wants his team to feel the urgency of the moment.

"We are getting to the point now where our margin of error is so thin," Doty said. "As good a season as we have had, being ranked in the Top 10 (NJCAA Division I) and everything else, if we don't win the Region 10 championship, our season is over.
"We have to really value our at-bats and find a way to push ourselves, no matter what the scoreboard says. Today, I thought we did a great job of that."

The Rhinos ran their road record to 11-3 and overall mark to 42-5. They play at Rockingham Community College Tuesday before returning home for a huge weekend series against Region 10 opponent (and No. 6-ranked) Florence-Darlington Tech, which has won 17 of 18 games on the road.