Gaston College wins Region 10 baseball title, will host Eastern District tournament this weekend

When Gaston College began its baseball program two years ago, head coach Shohn Doty talked about how he wanted the Rhinos to pursue championships and national tournament hosting duties.

On Tuesday morning as Gaston College's second-year program played in its first national postseason baseball tournament, the Rhinos did both in a 5-3 victory over USC Lancaster.

The win not only gave Gaston College the Region 10 championship, it means the Rhinos will host the National Junior College Athletic Association Eastern District championship tournament at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park this weekend.

Gaston College (45-10), Region 10 regular season champion Florence Darlington Tech and the champions of Region 15 and Region 20 will comprise the field for the 4-team, double-elimination tournament that will send its winner to the May 27-June 3 NJCAA World Series at Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Col.

The Rhinos, ranked No. 12 in the NJCAA poll and No. 11 in thejbb.net poll, rallied from early deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 against USC Lancaster on Tuesday morning at Lexington County Stadium in Lexington, S.C., in the "winner-take-all" finale of the 8-team, double-elimination tournament.

The No. 5 seed Lancers (32-20), who had previously beaten No. 1 seed Florence Darlington Tech, No. 4 seed Spartanburg Methodist (twice), knocked off No. 2 seed Gaston College 8-2 on Monday evening to force Tuesday's contest.

"I'm just so proud of the kids," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "This is something we've worked towards since we started practice."

USC Lancaster took a 1-0 lead in the first and after Gaston College tied the score at 1 in the bottom of the second took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. And Rhinos starter Derek Vartanian had overcome fielding miscues to work out of jams in the second and fourth innings to keep the deficit from being larger.

In the bottom of the fifth, a 3-run Gaston College rally gave it the lead for good. After Seth Christmas singled, Miller St. John doubled and Konni Durschlag walked to load the bases with none out, Wade Kelly's sacrifice fly tied the score at 2 before St. John tallied the go-ahead run on the back end of a double steal.

Finally, Adam Quintero's 2-out solo home run in the fifth gave the Rhinos a 4-2 lead that was enough to survive Lancers' rallies in their final four at-bats.

Vartanian allowed one baserunner in the sixth and two in the seventh before giving way to relievers Evan Lewis and Adam Straniero to close out the victory.

After Wade Kelly's fielder's choice grounder drove in Christmas for a 5-2 lead in the seventh innings, Lewis yielded a hit batter, a single, RBI groundout and a walk in the top of the eighth inning before Staniero made his second relief appearance of the year.

After allowing a leadoff walk to load the bases with two outs, Straniero got a strikeout to end the threat.

Then in the ninth inning, Straniero retired three of the four batters he faced - as only the Rhino's fourth fielding error allowed a baserunner - before he got his second strikeout in 1 1/3 innings to sew up the historic victory.

"What can you say about Derek and Nolan," Doty said. "They were dominant. And so many players stepped up offensively and had big at-bats and big hits or even big outs that moved the runners."

Christmas had two hits to lead Gaston College's 6-hit offense and Kelly had two RBIs and Quintero one on his solo home run.

A year ago, when the school restarted its athletic program for the first time since 1972, Gaston College's baseball team went 41-9 overall and won the Western Division of Region 10 Division II. That title extended the school's streak of consecutive regular season titles to five years since Gaston College had won the old North Carolina Community College Conference each year from 1969 to 1972.

With Tuesday's victory, Gaston College has now won six straight league regular season titles or conference tournaments in the last six seasons its has fielded a baseball program, which is believed to be the longest such streak of its kind among U.S. colleges and universities.

Here's the 2023 Region 10 baseball tournament results:

(Friday, May 5)
Game 1: No. 3 USC Sumter (32-14, 13-7) vs. No. 6 USC Union (19-26, 7-17) - USC Sumter 8-3
Game 2: No. 2 Gaston College (41-9, 16-6) vs. No. 7 Louisburg (25-24-1, 5-13-1) - Gaston College 11-3 in 7
Game 3: No. 4 Spartanburg Methodist (27-19-1, 13-9-1) vs. No. 5 USC Lancaster (28-18, 10-15) - USC Lancaster 5-4 in 11
Game 4: No. 1 Florence Darlington Tech (47-9, 20-3) vs. No. 8 USC Salkehatchie (4-41, 3-18) - Florence Darlington Tech 12-2 in 5
(Saturday, May 6)
Game 5: USC Union vs. Louisburg - USC Union 8-6 (Louisburg eliminated)
Game 6: Spartanburg Methodist vs. USC Salkehatchie - Spartanburg Methodist 10-0 in 6 (USC Salkehatchie eliminated)
Game 7: USC Sumter vs. Gaston College - Gaston College 8-0 in 7
Game 8: USC Lancaster vs. Florence Darlington Tech - USC Lancaster 8-5
(Sunday, May 7)
Game 9: Florence Darlington Tech vs. USC Union - USC Union 15-12 (Florence Darlington eliminated)
Game 10: USC Sumter vs. Spartanburg Methodist - Spartanburg Methodist 9-7 (USC Sumter eliminated)
Game 11: Gaston College vs. USC Lancaster - Gaston College 9-6
Game 12: USC Union vs. Spartanburg Methodist - Spartanburg Methodist 11-5 (USC Union eliminated)
(Monday, May 8)
Game 13: USC Lancaster vs. Spartanburg Methodist - USC Lancaster 3-0 (Spartanburg Methodist eliminated)
Game 14: Gaston College vs. USC Lancaster - USC Lancaster 8-2
(Tuesday, May 9)
Game 15: Gaston College vs. USC Lancaster - Gaston Colelge 5-3 (USC Lancaster eliminated; Gaston College wins the title)