Gaston College uses strong pitching to sweep Guilford Tech in Saturday doubleheader

Gaston College's baseball program continues its pursuit of an unbeaten February in the program's restart following Saturday's doubleheader sweep of visiting Guilford Tech.

The Rhinos (14-0, 8-0) got dominant pitching 9-3 and 8-0 victories at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.

"Today the offense wasn't as good as it has been but the pitching really picked it up," said Gaston College head coach Shohn Doty, whose team had scored 10 or more runs in its previous four games.

On Saturday, starters J.D. Everett and Gus Hughes picked up wins with solid outings and the Rhinos' bullpen pitched strong behind them.

The doubleheader sweep gives Gaston College a chance to finish unbeaten in February if it win Sunday's 2 p.m. game - also at CaroMont Health Park - in the three-game series finale against Guilford Tech.

"We have a chance at something really special with a win," Doty said. "But we have to come out focused and play hard."

In Saturday's opener, Everett went five innings with four strikeouts while yielding five hits and one run for the win before Hunter Shew, Marlowe Iorio and Konni Durschlag backed him up with one-hit relief; The only two runs scored by the Titans were unearned in the eighth inning.

Durschlag (three hits, double, three RBIs), Chandler Riley (three hits, two RBIs), Ahmir Cournier (two hits, three RBIs), J.D. Yakubinis (two hits, one RBI) and Enrique Wood (double) led a 12-hit attack in the opener.

In Saturday's nightcap, Hughes went six scoreless innings with six strikeouts while yielding three hits and David Sande retired the side in order in the seventh to close out the shutout.

"J.D. didn't have his best stuff but he found a way to get outs and pitched well," Doty said. "Then Hughes had only 60-something pitches in his six innings. He was really efficient because he was throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes."

Yakubinis (three hits, double, one RBI), Wade Kelly (two hits, double) and Miller St. John (two hits, double) led a 10-hit attack in the nightcap.