Gaston College baseball rallies twice to win Region 10 road baseball series

After dropping the opener of a delayed three-game Region 10 Division I series on Saturday, Gaston College's baseball team recorded two of its biggest innings of the year to take a pair of high-scoring "mercy" rule victories over USC Union to win another conference series.

Despite yielding three or more runs in the early innings of each contest, Gaston College won the series two games to one as the Rhinos lost 7-1 in Sunday's opener of a doubleheader, rallied for a 17-5 win in six innings in Sunday's nightcap and rallied again for a 24-12 victory in eighth innings of Monday's series finale.

"When you give up eight runs in the first inning, it puts your offense in a ridiculous hole," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said of Monday's win that came after the Rhinos fell behind 8-1 after the first inning. "Give our batters credit. They kept grinding away and scored in almost every inning then opened it up in the eighth.
"When you give up eight early like that, it's easy to look at that scoreboard and cash it in. Our guys battled back."

The rally from a seven-run deficit for a victory marks the largest comeback win in school history. Previously, the Rhinos had rallied from two six-run deficits in 2022 and one six-run deficit in 2023. Additionally, the 24 runs scored is tied second-most in school history.

Brandon Crabtree (4 hits, double, 3 RBIs) and Nick Lundquist (2 hits, home run, 3 RBIs) had multiple hits to lead the Gaston College offense.

On the mound, relievers Drake Purvis (5 innings, 5 strikeouts), Cross Clayton (2/3 innings, 1 strikeout) and Clayton Sherwood (1 2/3 innings, 1 strikeouts) allowed the Rhinos to rally back with Sherwood picking up the victory.

"Hopefully, that's the kind of win that can carry over into this week and into everything else moving forward," said Doty, whose team improved to 33-12-1 overall and 15-9 in Region 10 and received votes in Monday's latest National Junior College Athletic Assocation poll.

Crabtree (5 hits, double, 4 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (5 hits, double, home run, 8 RBIs), Joey Nicholson (5 hits, double, triple, 5 RBIs), Koy Swanson (4 hits, 2 doubles, 3 RBIs), David Nicks (4 hits, 2 home runs, 9 RBIs), Sam Dansky (4 hits, double, 3 RBIs), Lundquist (2 hits, home run, 3 RBIs), Ty Corbin (2 hits, triple, 2 RBIs), Jackson Toberman (1 hit, 1 RBI) and Holden Cooper (1 hit, 2 RBIs) led Gaston College's 33-hit offensive weekend.

Conner Frail threw a four-hitter with six strikeouts to get the win in the Sunday nightcap.

"We just want to build on this," Doty said. "It's been that kind of a year with us having to have the 'next man' up mentality.
"We're trying to find as many pieces as we can to get ready for the conference tournament. It's going to take us all to win that thing."

The Rhinos return to action with their final regular season weekend series against USC Salkehatchie with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and a 1 p.m. single game on Saturday.Ga