Home run power lifts Gaston College past Catawba Valley Community College

With a stiff wind blowing toward the outfield at Sims Legion Park Friday afternoon, the stage was set for a potential slugfest as Gaston College took on rival Catawba Valley Community College.

The host Rhinos took advantage of the favorable conditions as they unleashed a 13-hit attack that featured six home runs, including a two-run walk-off shot to the opposite field by Freddie Oliver in the bottom of the eighth inning to seal a 15-5 victory.

Oliver and J.D. Yakubinis hit two round-trippers each to lead the home run parade for Gaston College, which improved to 11-1 to jump start a big weekend of action at Sims Legion.

Wade Kelly and Trey Truitt also went yard as the Rhinos put together two big innings – a four-run spree in the third and a five-run outburst in the fourth – to take command of the game.

"On a day when our pitching struggled a bit, our offense and defense picked us up," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "You are not always going to play well in all three phases. The big thing in a game like this is you have to avoid giving up the big inning, and we didn't do that."

The Red Hawks had some success early against Rhinos starting pitcher J.D. Everett, pushing across two runs in the second inning and two more in the top of the fourth.

However, Gaston College answered in the bottom of the fourth to extend a 6-4 lead to a more comfortable 11-4. Kelly doubled in a pair of runs and then scored himself on a head-first slide at home plate, brushing his hand over the plate to avoid the tag from CVCC catcher John Nick Hannah on a close play. Pierson Gunnell followed a two-RBI double to close out the big inning.

The Rhinos added solo runs in the fifth and sixth innings before the left-handed hitting Oliver lofted a pitch over the wall in left field in the eighth to end it.

Yakubinis was clearly the trend-setter for the Rhinos' big day on offense. He hit a one-out four-bagger over the left field wall in the first inning and sent a titanic drive over the outer wall at Sims in the third inning.

The sophomore from Charlotte went 3-4 for the game with five RBIs. In addition to his home runs, Yakubinis drove in a run in the fourth with a fielder's choice and doubled home another run in the fifth.

"Today, instead of a walk-off home run, it was more of a spark plug to the get offense going," said Yakubinis, whose bottom-of-the-ninth-inning home run against Guilford Tech at CaroMont Medical Park was one of the highlights of the 2022 season. "It set the tone for the whole day against a former conference rival that the Rhinos are here, and we are swinging the bats early."

Yakubinis did not need any help from the wind to blast his second home run out of the park. "The win may have helped a bit, but I hit it pretty good. It was a hanging slider, and I got into that one," he said.

Behind Yakubinis, Kelly went 3-5 with three RBIs, and Oliver finished 2-3 with three runs-batted-in.

On the mound, Everett departed after four innings, and Hunter Shew (two innings) and Alex Jankowski (two innings) finished up out of the bullpen.

The Rhinos are back in action Saturday at 1 p.m. against USC Sumter at Sims Legion Park, and have a rematch with CVCC Sunday at 3:30 p.m.