Gaston College catcher Seth Christmas (left) discusses strategy with pitcher Landon Carr during last Sunday's Rhinos victory at Cleveland Community College.

Posted: Apr 17, 2024

Sophomore catcher leads Gaston College into weekend matchup of two of the country's top-ranked baseball teams

Arguably the country's biggest college baseball series this weekend will take place at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park when Gaston College hosts Florence-Darlington Tech with the Region 10 Division I regular season title at stake.

The host Rhinos (44-5, 17-3) are ranked No. 2 in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I poll (and No. 1 in the Dream Big Athletics poll) with Florence-Darlington Tech (42-6, 20-0) ranked No. 4.

"When FloDar comes in here, we're going to need to play our best baseball," Gaston College sophomore catcher Seth Christmas said. "I've been through it and some other guys have been through it. In these big games, you have to lock in and play ball."

The four-game series will be back-to-back doubleheaders starting Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. And Saturday's opener marks the 24th time Gaston College has faced a nationally-ranked team in the three years since the school restarted athletics in the 2021-22 school year.

That began with the school's first game as the Rhinos' 8-3 win on Feb. 2, 2022 at Caldwell Tech saw the host Cobras ranked No. 9 in the preseason NJCAA Division III poll.

Gaston College enters the weekend with a 15-8 all-time record against ranked opponents that includes 3-4 against Florence-Darlington Tech last season. The Rhinos lost the regular season series at FDT 3-1 before winning two of three games over the Stingers in the 2023 East District tournament at Sims Legion Park. The last two victories sent Gaston College to the NJCAA Division I World Series in Grand Junction, Col.

This season, Christmas and seven other returnees from the 50-13 teams and 28 newcomers have been determined since offseason drills began last September to have another championship and advance again to the World Series.

Christmas, who is one of 11 Rhinos players to sign or commit to a four-year school, has led the charge offensively with team-highs in batting average (.408) and RBIs (67) and second on the team in home runs (10).

After opening the season at No. 14 in the NJCAA preseason poll, Gaston College soared to No. 2 for four weeks, No. 1 for two weeks, No. 4 for one week and No. 2 again this week.

Christmas joins teammates Landon Carr (Campbell), Calvert Clark (Appalachian State), J.J. DeVos (Mount Olive), Caleb Estes (Charlotte), Ben Karpowicz (Campbell), Wagner Morrissette (Iowa), Freddie Oliver (North Carolina A&T), Mason Smith (Campbell), Evan Vandenbosch (Georgia Southern) and Isaac Williams (Elon) as signees or commitments to four-year schools.

"I went up to Liberty not long ago and loved the campus," said Christmas, who hit .323 with one home run and 17 RBIs in 38 games last season. "I met T-Rob (assistant coach Tyler Robinson) a lot when he was at Campbell.
"When I set foot on their campus, it was beautiful. That's where I want to be."

Christmas had also received interest from East Tennessee State, Queens and High Point before committing to Liberty, which is in its first year in Conference USA.

"Seth came in last year and another player was entrenched as the No. 1 catcher and by the end of the year he had kinda taken that role over and become our best catcher," Gaston College head coach Shohn Doty said of Christmas. "He's been our best hitter throughout this year and done a great job with our pitching staff.
"Liberty is a top 30 national program and that's what he aspired to be able to do."