Gaston College ready for 2025 after fall drills
Following fall drills that saw Gaston College's baseball program compete against NCAA Division I and II and some of the best junior colleges in the country, Rhinos head coach Shohn Doty is ready for the 2025 season that begins on January 25.
"It's a really good club but it's a really young club," Doty said of a fall roster comprised of 32 freshman and 14 sophomores. "My message at the end of our fall meeting was, 'Some of you that came in as freshman this fall need to come back in January as sophomores.'
"So that's the biggest difference between this year's team and the others. That being said, the standard hasn't changed. We expect to win 40 games, we expect to be ranked in the top 10 and we expect to compete for the region championship."
Doty has guided the Rhinos ever since Gaston College restarted its athletic program in the 2021-22 school year to unprecedented success.
Not only have the Rhinos earned national rankings in each of the last three seasons, they've won 40 or more games each year and extended a national collegiate record streak of consecutive league titles. Gaston College won its league title in the last four years it had a program from 1969 to 1972, then won its league title again in the first two years of the program restart.
Ironically, last year's team was unable to continue that streak of conference title even as they were ranked No. 1 nationally for the first time of any sport in school history and finished the season with a school-record 51 games in which Doty surpassed 100 head coaching victories.
Motivated by failing to repeat its historic 2023 NJCAA World Series run has fueled the recent fall workouts.
"I thought it was a productive fall," Doty said. "Our talent level is equal to what it's been the last couple of years so we're excited about that. But being younger presents some challenges.
"And we talk about it every year and the goal hasn't changed: We want to win the Region 10 championship, go to the district and go to the World Series. And there's a sense of urgency this season because its our region's turn to host the district tournament."
In 2023, the Rhinos won the Region 10 tournament and hosted the district they won before finishing fifth place in the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Col.
As is often the case in baseball, pitching is considered a key to championship success.
And Doty is confident in his pitching staff.
"I think we're particularly deep on the mound and I think from an offensive perspective we got better and better in the fall," Doty said.
Sophomore Connor Frail is expected to return to the weekend starting pitching rotation. He'll be joined by three newcomers - sophomore Daniel Parris, freshman Noah Zimmerman and freshman Drake Purvis in that weekend rotation.
Those who don't make the rotation will join returning sophomore Clayton Sherwood, freshman Ryan Brinkley, freshman Cross Clayton, freshman Jake Young and others in the bullpen.
"The strength of our team is on the mound right now," Doty said. "We're really comfortable with probably 10 or 11 guys that we can run out there."
In the every day positions, freshman Elijah Grant, freshman Trey Markham, freshman Joey Nicholson, freshman Langston Rupert and freshman Chris Hendrickson are top outfield candidates, Parris, freshman David Nicks, freshman Sam Dansky, sophomore Jackson Berini, sophomore Brandon Crabtree and sophomore Nick Martinez are top infield candidates and sophomore Nick Lundquist, sophomore Jackson Toberman and sophomore Ethan McNally are the catching candidates.
Gaston College closed its fall drills with a Rhinos World Series at the school's Gastonia Sims Legion Park home field in late October.
"We're happy with what we've done so far," Doty said. "And eager to get back to work in January."