Gaston College survives turbulent weather to take home victory

Two days after weather shortened Gaston College's baseball schedule, windy and cold conditions impacted Tuesday's 14-3 mercy rule-shortened victory over Brunswick Community College at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.

"The wind was blowing out and it's freezing cold," Rhinos coach Shohn Doty said of weather that dipped into the 40s with 25 mph wind gusts. "But we managed to get it done."

Gaston College, ranked No. 14 in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I poll, improved to 22-3 with a win in a contest shortened to 6 1-2 innings.

Starter and winner Alex Jankowski went four innings with three strikeouts and yielded three hits, one walk, one hit batter and one run before relievers Hunter Shew and Jaxson Mangum finished up with three hits of relief.

Pierson Gunnell hit two home runs and drove in four runs to lead a 10-hit offensive attack. Other offensive standouts were Konni Durschlag (2 hits, 2 RBIs, double), Adam Quintero (2 hits, 3 RBIs, home run), Seth Christmas (2 hits, double) and Enrique Wood (double, RBI).

Quintero's 2-run home run and Gunnell's 3-run home run highlighted an 8-run first inning. Wood's RBI double drove in a run in the second, Durschlag's RBI double highlighted a 4-run fifth and Gunnell's solo home run in the sixth was the final tally.

"It was good to get a win coming off a weird weekend when we played two games and were one out away from winning the third game," said Doty, whose team split its Region 10-opening series with USC Sumter at one game apiece after the scheduled opener of Sunday's doubleheader was cancelled after the Fire Ants scored a run to tie the score at 1 with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. "From the offensive standpoint, we were good.
"My biggest concern is the defense. We've got to clean that part up. We haven't been solid there for about a week. So that'll be the focus of practice the next few days. So we're excited to get the win. But there's work to still be done."

Gaston College returns to action with a four-game home series at Sims Legion against USC Lancaster; Saturday's doubleheader starts at 3 p.m. and Sunday's doubleheader is slated to start at 1 p.m.