Gaston College falls to No. 8-ranked Florence-Darlington Tech as host Stingers wrap up regular season title
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Gaston College | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
|
Florence-Darlington Technical College | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | X | 14 | 14 | 1 |
A No. 8 ranked team in the country needing two wins to wrap up another Region 10 regular season baseball title was a tall task for Gaston College on Saturday.
Florence Darlington Tech overcame an early deficit in the opener to win 14-5 then took an 8-1 win in the nightcap as the Stingers (42-7, 19-2) wrapped up their third straight Region 10 championship.
"I just think there's something to be said for having been there and done it," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said of Florence-Darlington. "And, you know, there were ready. They were ready to close it out today and we weren't able to match that."
The Rhinos, ranked No. 11 in the current National Junior College Athletic Association poll and No. 4 in thejbb.net poll, No. 6 in the Dream Big Athletics poll and No. 9 in the Perfect Game poll, fell to 39-7 and 15-5.
The Stingers' sweep gives them an automatic berth in the May 11-14 NJCAA district tournament that sends its winner to the May 27-June 3 NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Col.
Gaston College now will focus its attention on reclaiming momentum in Sunday's 1 p.m. Region 10 regular season-ending doubleheader, next Wednesday's 2 p.m. game at No. 1-ranked Walters State and next Saturday's 4 p.m. home finale against Hosanna Bible College on "Sophomore Day" at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.
"We'll go out tomorrow, try to get some momentum back and try to get ourselves ready to play the tournament," Doty said.
The winner of the 8-team, double-elimination Region 10 tournament Lexington County, S.C., Stadium from May 5-8 not only claims a berth in the 4-team NJCAA district tournament but it also will be the host team.
In Saturday's losses, Enrique Wood (3 hits, double, 1 RBI), Konni Durschlag (2 hits, triple, 1 RBI), Trey Truitt (2 hits, double, 1 RBI) and Preston Hall (2 hits, double, 2 RBIs) accounted for nine of the Rhinos' 11 total hits in the doubleheader.
The host Stingers had 23 hits and took advantage of three walks and four fielding errors to scored 22 runs on Saturday.