Gaston College drops close game at No. 3-ranked Walters State

Gaston College knew it had a tall task on Wednesday afternoon when it faced a program that has been ranked No. 1 in the country for four weeks on its homefield.

After a back-and-forth matchup that saw both teams take multiple leads, Walters State of Morristown, Tenn., came out victorious 9-7.

"Normally after a loss, I'm disheartened," Rhinos coach Shohn Doty said. "But I thought we played really well. I think we're doing the things we need to do to get ready for next week."

Gaston College dipped to 40-9 entering Saturday's "Sophomore Day" contest against Hosanna Bible College at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park. Ceremonies honoring 23 sophomores will start at 4:30 p.m. with the first pitch slated for 5 p.m.

The Rhinos next week begin their first-ever Region 10 championship tournament at the Lexington County, S.C., Stadium where they'll be the No. 2-seeded team in the 8-team event.

In Wednesday's matchup at No. 3 Senators led 1-0 after 1 1/2 innings and 4-2 after 4 1/2 innings before No. 3 Walters State scored in each of the next four innings to take the victory and improve its record to 45-8.

"I'm disappointed that we lost, but I'm not disappointed in how we played," Doty said. "When you play the challenging schedule that we play, sometimes you lose. Today was one of those days."

It was the third meeting of the season between the Rhinos and the Senators; The teams split a Feb. 5 doubleheader when Walters State won 4-1 in the opener and Gaston College won 4-2 in the nightcap.

Gaston College is ranked No. 17 in the NJCAA poll, No. 7 in thejbb.net poll and No. 10 in the Dream Big Athletics poll.

Walters State is the four-time defending Region 7 champion. And the Senators, who won the 2006 NJCAA World Series, have won 14 Region 7 titles, made 11 NJCAA World Series appearances and finished third in last year's NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.

In Wednesday's game, Seth Christmas (2 hits, double, home run, 3 RBIs), Konni Durschlag (2 hits, 2 RBIs), Andrew Muraco (2 hits, home run, 1 RBI) and Preston Hall (double) led the Rhinos' 10-hit offense.

Starter Kyle McKernan struck out eight batters in his 5 1/3 innings and David Sande got three strikeouts in his 1-inning stint.