Gaston College opens baseball season with DH sweep, sets scoring, HR record

Gaston College's baseball opened their 2026 season on Friday with a record-setting power-hitting effort in the nightcap of a pair of 15-3 wins in a doubleheader sweep of Patrick & Henry Community College at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.

The visiting Patriots scored the first three runs and last three runs of the doubleheader, but in between the Rhinos erupted for 30 runs in just eight innings of hitting. That includes a record 15-run, six-home run inning in the nightcap.

"As far as opening games go, there's not much to complain about," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "I know it sounds cliche, but our goal is to get better every day. I was really impressed with our preseason practices and today showed that."

In the opener, the Rhinos patient offense drew 13 walks and banged out eight hits (including three doubles) to score in each of the four innings in which they batted.

In the nightcap, Macon Leppert hit two of the six home runs in the dominating victory. It was the ninth 10-run inning in school history and broke the previous record of 13 runs in the top of the fourth inning of a 31-1 win at USC Union on April 6, 2024 in the opener of a doubleheader.

The six home runs set a record for most home runs in an inning and tied the school's all-time record set at Catawba Valley Community College on Feb. 17, 2023.

Gaston College's Friday afternoon offense was led by David Nicks (4 hits, 8 RBIs, double, home run), Leppert (3 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 home runs), Caden Davidson (3 hits, 3 RBIs, double), Logan Ponnett (2 hits, 3 RBIs, home run), Chris Hendrickson (2 hits, 3 RBIs, double) and Gabe Simmons (2 hits, 5 RBIs, home run),

On the mound, starter and winner Drake Purvis (2 1/3 innings, 5 strikeouts) and Dalton Hazlett (2 2/3 innings, 1 strikeout) combined on a one-hitter in the opener and starter and winner Cross Clayton (3 innings, 0 hits, 2 strikeouts) and relievers Cooper Phillips (1 inning) and Sean Williams (1 inning) combined on a four-hitter in the nightcap.

The Rhinos, who received votes in the preseason National Junior College Athletic Association poll, are off until back-to-back doubleheaders next weekend against Allegany College of Maryland next Saturday (1 p.m. start) and next Sunday (11:30 a.m. start).

"It's not ideal to have this long of a break, particularly coming off how well we played today," Doty said. "It's all about routine but we'll try to our work in, hopefully, after Mother Nature allows us this week."