2021-22 REVIEW: Part 2 of "Championship team" - Dramatic wins help baseball gain more and more confidence
Any chronicle of the splendid season that was Gaston College baseball in 2022 must include one trait that was a hallmark of the Rhinos' success: The ability to pull out victories with late inning drama.
As the team put together a 19-game winning streak, including a 15-0 run in the month of February and continued to climb in the national polls, it was the Rhinos' perseverance that stoked the fires.
Not only did Gaston College show its grit by overcoming sizeable deficits, the Rhinos won three games in walk off fashion.
As head coach Shohn Doty commented after one of those cardiac finishes: "This is a resilient group. They absolutely think they are going to win every time out."
Here are the highlights:
Feb. 6: Gaston College 8, Spartanburg Methodist 7 - In only its fourth game of the season, the fledgling program raised eyebrows with a stirring comeback against an national junior college power.
The Rhinos trailed 5-1 through five innings at Spartanburg Methodist before chipping away at the deficit and pulling it out with a three-run ninth inning.
Pierson Gunnell had one of his best outings of the season, collecting three hits and four RBIs, including the game-winning two-run single in the ninth.
Konni Durschlag contributed a ninth inning RBI to the rally and got the save with a perfect bottom of the ninth that featured a pair of strikeouts.
The win was a milestone in the sense that it came over a storied program that had compiled more than 1,700 wins and had advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) World Series nine times in a 45-year span.
Feb. 27: Gaston College 9, Guilford Tech 8 - J.D. Yakubinis gave the Rhinos perhaps their most compelling finish of the season with a ninth inning walk-off home run on a chilly, rainy afternoon at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.
The score was tied 8-all when the Charlotte Providence High School product stepped to the plate and proceeded to hit a drive over the wall in left-center field.
"I have never done that in my life," Yakubinis said of the team's first walk off win of the season. "I put a pretty good swing on it, and it ended up going over the fence. The Rhinos sweep February."
The home run capped a comeback in which the Rhinos overcame a 6-0 deficit after three innings. Chandley Riley's two-out single in the eighth drove in the tying run and set the stage for Yakubinis.
The Rhinos' Christian Baker kept his team in the game with a sparkling relief stint, retiring the side in order over the final three innings and recording six strikeouts.
April 2: Gaston College 4, Patrick & Henry College 3 - In the second game of a doubleheader at Sims Legion Park, Enrique Wood's walk off RBI single lifted the Rhinos to a 4-3 victory and a sweep of the weekend set of a team that had advanced to the 2021 NJCAA World Series.
Patrick & Henry led most of the way, but the Rhinos forced extra innings on Miller St. John's sacrifice fly RBI in the seventh.
In the bottom of the eighth, Wade Kelly moved into scoring position after being hit by a pitch and advancing to second base on a passed ball. Wood followed with a single to bring Kelly home with the game winner.
April 20: Gaston College 4, Cleveland Community College 3 - This game was memorable for a couple of reasons. The Rhinos clinched the NJCAA Region 10 West Division title, and Enrique Wood delivered again in the clutch.
Gaston College trailed 3-1 after 7 1-2 innings before rallying.
In the ninth, Chandler Riley opened with a home run to the tie the score 3-all. After Ahmir Cournier beat out an infield hit and advanced to third on a pair of throwing errors, Wood delivered his second walk-off of the season with a sharp single to left field.
April 24: Gaston College 9, Catawba Valley Community College 8 - At Henkel-Alley Field in Hickory, the Rhinos reached another high-water mark in a season of milestones—notching their 40th win of the season.
In a grind-it-out game marked by momentum swings, Gaston College scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth to break an 8-all tie. And in the bottom of that inning, the Rhinos made run-saving defensive plays to close out the Red Hawks.
With one out, Wood ran down a ground ball deep in the hole and tossed to second base for a force out before the game ended on an unusual play; Rhinos third baseman Chandler Riley got his glove on a ground ball that appeared to be spinning into foul territory before he picked up the ball bare-handed and threw to first in time to retire the runner for the third out.
Reflecting on the game, Doty said, "This is the benchmark of what we started with. We are not a typical first-year program. We set our goals to win 40 games and a Region 10 West championship, and we got both of those things done."