Gaston College Review 2024-25: Baseball has another strong season led by record-setters

When Gaston College's baseball began, the goals were the same as when Shohn Doty took over the program before the 2022 season: Win 40 or more games, win a Region 10 title and advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

Doty's Rhinos accomplished the first of those three but were close enough to the other two to stay motivated moving forward.

"Our expectations are high," said Doty, whose team finished 41-15-1 overall and were Region 10 regular season and tournament runner-ups. "But when things happen, you have to temper expectations and be realistic. And I thought we got out of this team about as much as we could and I'm proud of them.
"We achieved a lot and won every series but two against them."

Injuries were a huge factor in those struggles as was struggling to defeat region rival Florence-Darlington Tech, which spent much of the season in the top 10 of national rankings before beating the Rhinos for the Region 10 title, winning an East District series it hosted and advancing to the World Series.

Another factor was the team's youth as only 11 sophomores will depart from the program.

"This is unusual for us in that we'll have several returners and we have to figure out how many are coming back," Doty said. "It's a good problem to have. We've got to continue to work with what we have and the standard is what we've set and we're staying with that."

Gaston College was ranked as high as No. 14 in the national poll and was in the top 10 of four other polls on two-year schools.

Sophomores Conner Frail, Brandon Crabtree and Daniel Parris and freshman Joey Nicholson, Noah Zimmerman, David Nicks, Koy Swanson and Chris Hendrickson were All-Region 10 honorees.

Nicholson set a school record for single-season hits and Frail a record for single-season innings pitched and Frail's 14-3 career record ties him with J.D. Everett for a school standard.