Gaston College wins baseball season-opener at nationally-ranked Caldwell Tech

Ahmir Cournier collected the first official hit for a Gaston College baseball team in 50 years.

And his solo shot over the left field fence in the top of the first inning proved a good omen for what was about to come.

A first baseman for the Rhinos, Cournier went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Pierson Gunnell added a two-run homer as Gaston College defeated Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute 8-3 in Wednesday's season opener at historic Walker Stadium in Lenoir.

The Rhinos built a 7-1 lead through six innings and coasted to a relatively easy win over a Cobras team ranked No. 9 in the preseason National Junior College Athletic Association Division III poll.

"The first game in 50 years and the first win in 50 years is really special," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "It was a fun bus ride home."

Gaston College's four-man pitching rotation struggled with control – a combined nine walks and two hit batters – but the staff recorded 14 strikeouts and limited the Cobras to six hits.

J.D. Everett, who replaced starting pitcher Marlowe Iorio in the third inning, had two scoreless innings in his stint. Tyler Parks worked two innings before Christian Baker, NCAA Division I signee (South Carolina) Zach Zedalis and Konni Durschlag closed out the game in the last three innings.

After hitting the milestone home run in the first, Cournier collected an RBI single in the third and doubled into the left field corner in the fifth to score another run. Gunnell's line-drive home run in the second inning cleared the fence in left-center to give the Rhinos a 3-1 lead. Two more runs in the third, Cournier's double in the fifth, and J.D. Yakubinis's RBI single through the left side of the infield in the seventh made the score 7-1.

Yakubinis collected three hits in five at-bats and two RBIs to contribute to the Rhinos' nine-hit attack against four Caldwell Tech pitchers.

Breon Ishmael, a freshman left fielder, accounted for all of the Cobras' runs with a solo homer in the second and a two-run shot in the seventh, finishing the game 3-for-5 with three extra-base hits.

Wednesday's opener marked Gaston College's first official game since May 13, 1972.

"From start to finish, our guys were focused on the job they had to do," Doty said. "And they did it against a really high-quality opponent."

Gaston College next plays on Saturday in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Surry Community College in its home opener at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.