Gaston College pitchers record double shutout along with a historic perfect game on Saturday

A double shutout capped by a history-making perfect game sparked Gaston College to a doubleheader sweep of Fayetteville Tech on Saturday at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.

With sophomore Abigail Gawlinski firing a four-hitter, the Rhinos won 9-0 in five innings in the opener before freshman Abigal Brewton pitched the school's first perfect game in a 12-0, five-inning victory in the nightcap.

"Ten innings and four hits and no walks from pitchers today, so we played really clean ball all day," said Gaston College head coach Mike Steuerwald, whose team improved to 10-2. "The level that we played at today was the best we've played at in 12 games and it was fun to watch."

Grace Kealy (5 hits, 3 RBIs, 2 doubles, triple), Kendall Bradshaw (4 hits, 4 RBIs, double), Skye Harrington (3 hits, 3 RBIs, double) and Alayna Patrick (3 hits, 3 RBIs, double) led the Gaston College offense in the sweep.

The Rhinos broke open the first game with an eight-run fourth inning and scored five in the first inning, three in the second and four in the third in the nightcap.

"We just made an adjustment early off their lefty starter and had that big inning and then we continued it on in the second game," Steuerwald said of his offense that picked up 12 hits in each game. "It was good to see us do damage throughout the lineup."

Brewton's perfect game was the first in school history and the no-hitter was the second; 2023 All-American Brantleigh Parrott threw a no-hitter at USC Union on March 5, 2023.

"She threw 42 pitches total," Steuerwald said of Brewton. "It was such an efficient game."

Brewton, who had previously thrown no-hitters in high school, didn't know she had been perfect until late in the game.

"It was really shocking and exciting because I had no idea I was throwing a no-hitter until the end," said Brewton, who struck out four batters in the game.

Gaston College remains at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park for its next games in Tuesday's 2 p.m. doubleheader against Caldwell Tech.