No. 21 Gaston College drops weekend Region 10 series to No. 15 Florence Darlington Tech

Games 36, 37 and 28: March 28 and 29 vs. Florence Darlington Tech

No. 21 Gaston College entered last weekend with hopes of challenging No. 15 Florence Darlington Tech atop the Region 10 Division I standings.

A 6-3 win in last Friday's opener increased those expectations before a doubleheader loss on Saturday kept the visiting Stingers (29-8, 15-3) comfortably atop the league with the Rhinos (27-10-1, 11-7) still in second place.

"We're disappointed," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "But as we learned last year when we were probably playing as well as we could play, a high ranking and all of those wins didn't help us a whole lot when we got to the Region 10 tournament.
"So we have to take the opposite approach this year. We're not where we want to be yet but if we can get to where we want to be in the first of May, we'll have a good chance to win that thing."

Doty was referencing last year's school-record 51-8 team that was ranked No. 1 in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll for four weeks, including the 2024 Region 10 tournament that saw Gaston College end its season with a third-place Region 10 tournament finish.

The Rhinos have 15 regular season games remaining with 12 in Region 10 Division I play.

In Friday's opening game victory, starter Conner Frail (5 innings) and reliever Jake Young (4 innings, win) combined to scatter 10 hits and Koy Swanson's two-run double in the sixth inning snapped a 3-all tie for Gaston College.

Five fielding errors and six walks made Saturday a challenging day for the pitching staff in 8-2 and 9-1 losses.

For the weekend, Jackson Toberman (5 hits, double, 2 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (4 hits, double, 2 RBIs), David Nicks (4 hits, 1 RBI), Sam Dansky (4 hits, 1 RBI), Swanson (3 hits, double, 3 RBIs) and Joey Nicholson (3 hits) led the Rhinos' 31-hit effort in the three games.

"On Friday, I thought we played one of our more complete games of the year," Doty said. "Then when you run it back on Saturday, we weren't quite there. Early errors kind of set the tone and the offense struggled to get traffic and push across some runs."

Gaston College completes its 13-game homestand at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park with a single game on Tuesday at 1 p.m. against Rockingham County Community College and a three-game series against Region 10 Division I rival USC Sumter on Saturday (1 p.m. doubleheader) and Sunday (1 p.m. single game).