Gaston College extends winning streak with DH sweep
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Florence-Darlington Technical College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
|
Gaston College | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Gaston College extended its winning streak to 11 and moved within one more victory of clinching the Region 10 Division I regular season title with a doubleheader sweep of Florence-Darlington Tech at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.
The Rhinos won 3-1 in the opener as ace pitcher Brantleigh Parrott improved her record to 17-0 on the season and they rallied from an early deficit for a 10-4 victory in the nightcap as Amiya Tomlinson went the first 5 2-3 innings before Parrott closed the game out.
Gaston College improved to 34-6 overall and 11-1 in the region with four league games remaining - an April 14 home doubleheader against USC Sumter and an April 22 road doubleheader at Spartanburg Methodist.
"We've still got to take care of business and I think we've got a big week ahead with Johnson C. Smith coming in as a four-year school on Tuesday and then USC Sumter next Friday," Rhinos coach Mike Steuerwald said of next week's last slated home games. "We want to win the region outright and they're the only team to beat us in conference so we owe them something. Also it's 'Sophomore Day' (on Friday) so we want to have a good game for that as well."
In Thursday's opener, Parrott yielded only three hits, two walks and one unearned run while striking out 15 batters that include the first six batters she faced.
Parrott also drove in the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly and scored the second run of the game after reaching on an error when scored scored on Serena Yalich's 2-run home run in the fourth inning.
In the nightcap, the visiting Stingers (15-16, 3-9) scored twice in the top of the first inning before the Rhinos scored once in the first, seven times in the second and once in the fourth.
Tomlinson improved to 8-4 by yielding seven hits, five walks, four runs (two earned) with five strikeouts. Parrott relieved and struck out three of the four batters she faced.
Parrott also had two hits and three RBIs to lead Gaston College's 7-hit offense. Other offensive standouts were Grace Manning (3-run home run) and Serena Yalich (double).