Gaston College drops doubleheader at Cleveland Community College

Gaston College's baseball team completed a historic debut season as Western Division II champions of Region 10 with a 30-6 league record after dropping a doubleheader at Cleveland Community College on Wednesday.

The No. 3-ranked Rhinos (40-7 overall) lost 19-16 in a 4 1/2 hour opening game before losing 6-3 in the nightcap.

"We didn't play very well at all in any phase," said Gaston College coach Shohn Doty, whose first-year team set Region 10 history as the first team with 30 conference wins. "It was obviously not the way we wanted to finish out our league play.
"And we've got a couple of days to figure it out with three games to go. I need to do a better job of having our guys ready to play and play at the level we are accustomed to - and that falls on me."

In the opener, Gaston College trailed 12-5 after two innings and was behind 16-9 after five innings before a six-run rally cut the deficit to 16-15. But the Rhinos could muster only one more run in the last three innings.

Konni Durschlag's four hits and three RBIs led Gaston College's 11-hit offense.

In the nightcap, Durschlag added three more hits and two home runs to lead a 10-hit Rhinos' offense that also got three hits from Miller St. John and two from Chandler Riley.

Gaston College used nine pitchers in the doubleheader and yielded 21 hits and 16 walks. And Rhinos' fielders also allowed three other runners to reach base on errors.

The Rhinos close out their regular season with games at Florence-Darlington Tech on Saturday at 1 p.m. and at home against Florence-Darlington Tech on Sunday at 2 p.m. and against USC Sumter on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Before Sunday's home game, Gaston College will honor its sophomores in their final year of playing for the school.