No, 1 Gaston College's baseball season comes to an end in Region 10 tournament

A season of extraordinary accomplishments and expectations came to an end for Gaston College in the early hours of Tuesday morning in the Region 10 tournament at Lexington County, S.C., Stadium.

The Rhinos, ranked No. 1 for much of the year by the National Junior College Athletic Association and other polls, saw their season end with a 51-8 overall record that set a school-record for single-season victories.

Gaston College lost 11-4 to Florence-Darlington Tech in the tournament's winner's bracket final, then was eliminated in a 5-3 loss to USC Sumter.

"We've set the bar really high here every year," Rhinos coach Shohn Doty said. "That's not going to change. We're going to continue to do what we've done and be a top program in the region. This won't slow us down at all.
"At the end of the day, 51 wins is a huge accomplishment. We were ranked No. 1 in the country for five or six weeks. So I thought we grew. I thought we got better.
"I just think we picked a bad day to have a bad day."

Both of the losses came in tournament affected by a turbulent weather pattern that had been in the Columbia, S.C., area for the last few days.

Originally slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday, the winner's bracket game with No. 6-ranked Florence-Darlington Tech was postponed twice on Sunday before moved to 11 a.m. on Monday. A morning rainstorm then moved the game to a noon and 1:30 p.m. projected starts before eventually getting underway at 4 p.m.

However, a lightning delay after 3 1/2 innings suspended play for 1 1/2 hours before the game was eventually resumed at 7:12 p.m. and would end at 8:51 p.m.

Officials at the stadium announced a 9:20 p.m. start time for the USC Sumter contest before another lightning delay pushed the opening pitch back to 10 p.m. That game wouldn't be interrupted anymore and ended at 12:55 a.m. early Tuesday morning.

In the opener, designated home team Florence-Darlington Tech scored eight runs in the first three innings off Rhinos' ace Mason Smith, who last week was named Region 10 pitcher of the year. Smith, who was victimized by four unearned runs, suffered his first loss of the season to fall to 9-1.

Offensively, the Rhinos closed within 7-3 and 8-4 but could get no closer as Jackson Berini (3 hits, walk) and Seth Christmas (2 hits, 2 RBIs) led a nine-hit attack.

In the nightcap, Gaston College scored first and starter Connor Frail had a no-hitter for five innings before the Bantams erupted for five runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Trevor Lucas' first-inning double, Jackson Berini's fourth-inning single and Trent Murchison's ninth-inning two-run double were the hits for the Rhinos.

Gaston College entered the season with hopes of returning the NJCAA World Series after going 50-13 a year ago. And this season, the Rhinos had a school-record 26-game winning streak that helped their gain the first top overall ranking in school history.

"It's been a really good ride and we'll see where it goes from here," said Doty, whose program will lose 20 players who were honored on "Sophomore Day" last month. "We have recruits coming in this week.
"I appreciate all the sophomores and what they did for us. They set a really high standard for the incoming guys and the returning guys."