Gaston College rallies for both wins in a doubleheader sweep

Gaston College's softball team could've easily been a fatigued, road-weary team on Thursday as it played its seventh and eighth games - all on the road - in the last six days.

Instead, the Rhinos staged a pair of rallies to complete a doubleheader sweep of Fayetteville Tech in 11-8 and 14-6 victories to improve to 22-6 entering a five-day break in their schedule.

In the opener, Gaston College trailed 7-2 after five innings before taking an 8-7 lead then after the host Trojans forced extra innings, the Rhinos scored three times in the ninth to take the victory.

In the nightcap, Fayetteville Tech roared ahead 6-2 after three innings before a season-high 19-hit offensive attack helped Gaston College score the final 12 runs of the contest.

"We did a great job of responding to playing so many games here lately," said Rhinos head coach Mike Steuerwald, whose team won 5-1 Wednesday night over Southeastern Illinois. "Last night's game was probably one of the best on both sides we've played this year and I think it took out of us emotionally. We didn't have a lot left in the tank.
"But we just kind of worked hard to piece things together and stayed in the games."

Haylee Salter (5 hits, double, home run, 3 RBIs), Asheton Queen (5 hits, double), Gabrielle Porterfield (5 hits, 2 RBIs), Brantleigh Parrott (4 hits, triple, 3 RBIs), Serena Yalich (3 hits, 2 doubles), Grace Manning (3 hits, home run, 4 RBIs), Logan Lilly (2 hits, 2 RBIs) and Gracie Brown (2 hits, 2 RBIs) all had big days at the plate.

And Parrott picked up both victories by yielding one run in four innings with 11 strikeouts in the opener and pitching four scoreless innings with three strikeouts in the nightcap.

"We had a lot of good contributions from people up and down the lineup," Steuerwald said. "The offense just really came alive. Salter had a big day for us. She just seemed to be seeing the ball extremely well."

Gaston College is off until next Tuesday when it plays a 3 p.m. doubleheader at Caldwell Tech.