Gaston College enters Region 10 championship with high hopes, momentum of late-season surge

Gaston College baseball coach Shohn Doty says every year his team's goals are pretty simple: 40 wins, a Region 10 regular season and tournament title and a berth in the National Junior College Athletic Association.

As the Rhinos enter this weekend's Region 10 championship, they are 39-13-1 overall and 20-10 in Region 10 Division with season-long rankings in the National Junior College Athletic Association.

But that leaves them just shy of their first two goals.

This weekend, as the No. 2-seeded team behind No. 9 Florence Darlington Tech (46-9, 26-4), Gaston College has a chance to win the postseason tournament that also advances its winner to the NJCAA East District tournament it would host.

"I'm excited about having a chance to play in the tournament," Doty said. "I think it's pretty wide open this year. And, in my heart, I think we've got enough to win."

Two years ago, the Rhinos won the Region 10 tournament in the second-year program's first year of national tournament eligibility and won the East District tournament it hosted to advance to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Col.

A year ago, through ranked No. 1 much of the season, the Rhinos entered the tournament as the favorite but finished third in the Region 10 tournament.

This season, injuries have knocked out several key players, most notably 10 of the 22 pitchers that Doty expected to have on hand throughout the season.

"But you can't make excuses," Doty said. "We have to take the guys that we have, not complain about the guys we don't have and put together the best team we can have in order to win."

With wins in 12 of the last 15 games, Gaston College enters the Region 10 tournament playing some of its best baseball of the season.

Trey Markham (.412 average, nine RBIs), Brandon Crabtree (.405 average, 6 home runs, 35 RBIs), Joey Nicholson (.385 average, 12 home runs, 54 RBIs), Jackson Toberman (.360 average, four home runs, 38 RBIs), Chris Hendrickson (.353 average, five home runs, 36 RBIs), Koy Swanson (.351 average, 11 home runs, 51 RBIs), Ty Corbin (.341 average, one home run, 11 RBIs), Daniel Parris (.325 average, six home runs, 36 RBIs), David Nicks (.328, nine home runs, 58 RBIs) and Sam Dansky (.314 aveage, seven home runs, 42 RBIs) have led the offense.

And Conner Frail (9-2 record, 3.28 ERA), Parris (7-3 record, 2.89 ERA), Noah Zimmerman (7-4 record, 3.60 ERA), Drake Purvis (7-0 record, 3.67 ERA), Clayton Sherwood (2-1 record, 1 save, 6.41 ERA), Travis Smith (2-2 record, 5.30 ERA), Jake Young (2-1 record, 7.63 ERA) and Alex Sobol (1-0 record, 1 save, 4.61 ERA) have led the pitching staff.

"But the goal is to win the first one," said Doty, whose team's tournament opener is Saturday at 1 p.m. against the winner of Friday's USC Lancaster-USC Salkehatchie game. "You have to win that first one before you can think about the next one."

Here's is this week's Region 10 Division I tournament schedule of games to be played at Lexington County Stadium in Lexington, S.C.:

(Friday, May 2)
Game 1 at 2 p.m.: #4 Seed (USC Sumter) vs. #5 Seed (USC Union)
Game 2 at 5 p.m.: #3 Seed (USC Lancaster) vs. #6 Seed (USC Salkehatchie)

(Saturday, May 3)
Game 3 at 10 a.m.: #1 Seed (Florence Darlington Tech) vs. Winner Game 1
Game 4 at 1 p.m.: #2 Seed (Gaston College) vs. Winner Game 2
Game 5 at 4:30 p.m.: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3
Game 6 at 7:30 p.m.: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 4

(Sunday, May 4)
Game 7 at 1 p.m.: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Game 8 at 4:30 p.m.: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6
Game 9 at 7:30 p.m.: Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8

(Monday, May 5)
Game 10 at noon: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9
(If Necessary) Game 11 at 3 p.m.: if Winner Game 7 loses Game 10