Gaston College opens 2025 baseball season with high expectations

When Shohn Doty came to Gaston College in the summer of 2021, he told his players and fellow staffers that his goals for the program were to become a top 10 national program and a regular Region 10 title contender.

With a 142-30 record, two regular season titles, one tournament title and a Junior College World Series appearance, it's pretty clear the program has fulfilled his high hopes.

Starting this weekend, Doty's fourth-year Rhinos begin their 2025 season with high expectations - and not just from their coach.

Gaston College is ranked No. 6 in the Dream Big Athletics preseason poll and No. 9 in the 2-Year Baseball preseason poll.

Doty is confident this year's Rhinos can measure up to the hype.

"I'm excited about where we are," Doty said. "When we started, we wanted to be a perennial top 10 team and we're starting to achieve that. Coming off of the year we had last year and the World Series team two years ago, it is a challenging team and it's a talented team.
"There's no question that the talent level is on par with where we've been in the first three years."

According to Doty, that starts with a pitching staff that's blessed with seven left-handers that are all considered future four-year collegians.

"Early in the year, you rely on pitching and defense and I think this team has a chance to be a pitching-centric team throughout the whole year," Doty said.

Right-handed returnees Connor Frail (5-1 with 4.50 ERA in 10 starts) and Clayton Sherwood (1-0 with three saves and 1.47 ERA in 14 appearances) will be joined by that talented group that includes left-handers Drake Purvis, Noah Zimmerman, Tucker Holland, Terry Kaler, Alex Sobol, Alex Tawa and McCoy and right-handers Daniel Parris, Jake Young, Ross Brinkley and Cross Clayton.

Frail, Purvis, Zimmerman, Parris and Holland are considered weekend starter candidates with the others currently slated for bullpen roles.

In the field, returnee Nick Lundquist and newcomer Jackson Toberman are catching candidates with returnees Jackson Berini and Brandon Crabtree and newcomers David Nicks, Sam Dansky and Nick Martinez in the infield and newcomers Martinez, Trey Markham, Elijah Grant, Joey Nicholson, Koy Swanson and Chris Hendrickson competing for outfield roles.

"We're trying to juggle more this season that we have in the past to give more guys opportunities," Doty said of the job of him and his coaching staff of K.J. McAllister, Jacob Rand, Kyler Johnston and Zach Jarrett faces this season. "So I love the fact that we have more depth. But we also are going to have to have some guys step up and separate themselves and we're not quite to that point yet.
"It'll be incumbent on us as coaches to get guys in as many games and have as many opportunities as possible."