Gaston College drops high-scoring game at Guilford Tech

Nationally-ranked Gaston College lost a high-scoring baseball game on Sunday by a 13-12 margin at Guilford Tech.

The Rhinos, ranked in the top four of all three National Junior College Athletic Association Division II polls, fell to 33-3 overall and 23-2 in the West Division of Region 10.

Gaston College fell behind 9-5 after three innings and trailed 10-6 after six innings before a six-run Rhinos' seventh inning gave them a 12-10 lead. Host Guilford Tech scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to account for the final margin - but not before Gaston College left runners on first and second in the top of the ninth.

"At the end of the day, you've got to make good pitches and you've got to make plays in the field," said Gaston College coach Shohn Doty, whose team is ranked No. 2 in thejbb.net poll, No. 4 in the NJCAA poll and PBR Juco poll. "We didn't do that today."

The Rhinos' pitching staff yielded eight hits and 11 walks and its fielders made three errors that led to seven unearned runs.

Gaston College's 17-hit offense nearly overcame those struggles as Konni Durschlag, Ahmir Cournier and Wade Kelly had four hits apiece and J.D. Yakubinis had two hits. Durschlag, Cournier, Yakubinis and Enrique Wood had two RBIs each and Durschlag and Wood homered while Cournier and Kelly had two doubles apiece and Durschlag, Yakubinis, Pierson Gunnell and Xavier Swann had doubles.

"We got off to a good start," said Doty, whose team led 4-0 after 1 1-2 innings. "It came down to us not pitching and fielding very well today."

The Rhinos return to action on Wednesday in a 2 p.m. Region 10 West division doubleheader at Cleveland Community College.