Returning redshirt third baseman a key to Gaston College's high 2023 baseball expectations

A year ago, Gaston College baseball coach Shohn Doty was confident in the production he would get from third baseman Chandler Riley.

Riley, now a freshman at Campbell University, hit .382 with seven home runs and 43 RBIs at the top of the Rhinos' batting order last season as the team went 41-9 overall, earned national rankings and won a Region 10 Western Division regular season title in Gaston College's inaugural year.

This season, Matthew Dobson is the projected starter after redshirting last year as Riley's understudy.

"I had to put my nose down and grind a little bit," said Dobson, who transferred to Gaston College after a year at Belmont Abbey. "Chandler's a great player and I figured it would be my best bet to play behind him and learn and get better."

In the Rhinos' 2022 fall season, Dobson held down third base and hit .275 with a .475 on-base percentage, five doubles and eight RBIs.

Dobson says his success vindicated the decision he made to come to Gaston College in the summer of 2021.

"When I first heard Gaston College was having a new program, I didn't really expect a lot of success," said Dobson, a 2020 graduate of Durham's Voyager Academy. "When I got in here, on my first day watching people hit at practice, I was like, 'Wow!' So I felt like it was going to be a special season."

The only downside last spring was that the Rhinos were ineligible to participate in national playoff competition.

But that creates added motivation for Dobson and other returnees who are eager to make the school's National Junior College Athletic Association postseason debut.

"Towards the end of last season, we were at 40 wins and couldn't go anywhere," Dobson said. "I think it'll be better this year knowing we can go somewhere and do something great. It really gives us something to play for."

Dobson and his teammates have been emphatic that winning the Region 10 Division I regular season title and hosting a district tournament that sends its winner to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Col., is the Rhinos' goal.

"I really think we can go a long way," Dobson said. Two-time defending Region 10 champion Florence-Darlington "is a team that we're going to play a lot and we know they've got a lot of talent. But I think we can make it."