Gaston College takes Region 10 road series win at USC Sumter

After a heartbreaking loss in the opener of its three-game Region 10 Division I series at USC Sumter on Saturday, Gaston College's baseball team bounced back to take a 2-1 series victory with win in Saturday's nightcap and come-from-behind victory on Sunday.

The results improved the Rhinos to 14-6-1 overall and 3-3 in Region 10 play.

In Saturday's series opener, Gaston College took leads of 2-0, 4-1, 5-1 and 6-5 before losing 8-6 on a walkoff two-run home run by host USC Sumter.

But the Rhinos had their seventh double-digit scoring effort in a 15-8 victory in the nightcap on Saturday then scored runs in the eighth and ninth inning to rally for a 2-1 victory in Sunday's series finale behind a historic complete game pitching performance by Daniel Parris.

Trailing 1-0 after seven innings, Gaston College tied the score on Joey Nicholson's RBI single in the eighth inning, then took the lead on David Nicks' RBI single in the ninth before Parris finished off the school's first nine-inning complete game in school history since 1971.

Parris yielded three hits, three walks and one unearned run while striking out six.

The last nine-inning complete game came on May 8, 1971 when Alan Lindsay shutout Lenoir Community College 9-0 to complete a championship of the old N.C. Community College Conference in a game in which Lindsay also set a school record with 19 strikeouts; Lindsay was the first Gaston College player ever drafted by a major league team and the first to play in the minor leagues.

Parris' effort was his fourth straight victory and improved his record to 4-1.

"It's tough to win on the road and we're happy to win the series - and win games like we won in the finale," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said.

In Saturday's win, Conner Frail went six innings to improve his record to 3-1 on the season and Joey Nicholson led the 15-hit offense with three hits, including a double and home run, with three RBIs.

For the weekend, Brandon Crabtree (5 hits, 2 doubles, home run, 2 RBIs), Nicholson (4 hits, double, home run, 4 RBIs), Nick Lundquist (3 hits, home run, 3 RBIs), Nicks (3 hits, home run, 3 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (3 hits, double, 1 RBI), Jackson Toberman (2 hits, double, 2 RBIs) and Holden Cooper (2 hits, 2 RBIs) led the offense.

The Rhinos return to action on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Wake Tech before hosting USC Union in their opening three-game Region 10 series at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park. There will be a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday and a single game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

"We're really happy to be at home this weekend against Union in Region 10," Doty said. "But before that we've got to go play at a really good Wake Tech team and, hopefully, keep stringing together some Ws."