Gaston College adds top player from inaugural team to 2023 roster that has high expectations

A year ago, Gaston College's inaugural softball team endured many hardships.

Pitcher Serena Yalich wasn't one of them.

Yet with hopes of a professional career in nursing looming, Yalich thought she was ready to walk away.

Instead, Yalich chose to return to the sport this spring after missing fall practice.

And her Rhinos' coach knew as soon as he saw Yalich approach about a return the reason the former Parkwood High standout will rejoin the program this spring as it pursues Region 10 and national playoff success.

"So she popped back into the office one day in the fall," Steuerwald recalls. "I kind of gave her a look and said, 'You miss it, don't you?' And she looked at me and said, 'Yeah, well that's what I stopped by.'"

Remembering it now causes Yalich to chuckle.

"He was like, 'You know you're more than welcome to come back,'" Yalich said. "It's definitely a good feeling and not as stressful. Last year, it was hard. We were struggling to get by."

This season, after a full recruting cycle, Steuerwald has a more talented roster and Gaston College is eligible to pursue a Region 10 title and a national postseason playoff berth.

However, as anyone involved with the Rhinos' startup program would say, "getting by" last season meant putting players in unfamiliar positions while playing out the schedule.

Yalich was among them.

Originally recruited as a middle infielder, Yalich ended up being the starting pitcher for 13 of team's first 20 games last season.

"She did a great job for us eating up some innings in the circle," Steuerwald said of Yalich. "It was maybe not her top skill thing but she did a good job and everything we asked of her last year she did and never complained about it."

For her part, Yalich took her pitching chores in stride.

"I've pitched for other teams so it wasn't that big of a change," Yalich said. "But I was sore in a lot of places I'm not normally sore and my arm was more sore than usual."

At the plate, Yalich led the team in home runs (3) and was second in batting average (.388) and RBIs (10).

"She's going to provide a big bat in our lineup again this year and we've just got to keep her progressing along this spring," Steuerwald said.

Yalich says the 13 newcomers on the 15-player roster - McKenzie Plaskin is the other returnee from 2022 - have breathed more confidence into the program.

"It's exciting - and one of the reasons I wanted to come back," said Yalich, who plans to finish up her degree at Gaston College before pursuing a four-year degree at Charlotte's Carolina College of Health Sciences in Charlotte in hopes of pursuing a nursing career. "I talked to McKenzie Plaskin some and she said it was a great group of girls and a different culture."

Gaston College opens its 2023 schedule with a 1 p.m. exhibition doubleheader at Belmont Abbey on Feb. 6 before opening the regular season at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park on Feb. 11 with a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Patrick & Henry Community College.