Gaston College sets history by clinching Region 10 regular season title on "Sophomore Day"

Gaston College set history on Friday with a doubleheader sweep while celebrating "Sophomore Day" at Gastonia's CaroMont Health Park.

The Rhinos improved to 36-6 overall and 13-1 in Region 10 to wrap up the region regular season title with two weeks left in the regular season.

Ironically, Gaston College's surge to a title in its first full year of softball started with a 16-10 loss at USC Sumter on March 3 in their first-ever Region 10 Division I contest.

On Friday, the Rhinos extended their overall winning streak to 14 games and their Region 10 winning streak to 13 games - or since that opening defeat.

"Just coming back from when we split in Sumter in our first regional games to this is very special," Gaston College coach Mike Steuerwald said. "We knew then that we were better than that from a talent standpoint but could we put it together on the field?"

The Rhinos continued to answer that question with an emphatic, 'Yes!'

In Friday's sweep that was preceded by honoring sophomores Asheton Queen, McKenzie Plaskin, Jailyn Tineo and Serena Yalich, freshman Brantleigh Parrott struck out 15 batters in eight innings of pitching for a victory and a save while adding three doubles and six RBIs in a 10-0, 5-inning victory in the opener and 8-3 in the nightcap.

Other Gaston College standouts were Logan Lilly (4 hits, triple, 2 RBis), Tessa Hunt (4 hits, two doubles, 1 RBI), Yalich (3 hits, double, home run, 4 RBIs), Queen (2 hits, double, 1 RBI), Haylee Salter (2 hits, 1 RBI) and Amiya Tomlinson (4 innings for the win in Game 2).

With the chance to clinch the Region 10 title on an emotional day where game time was moved up to 11 a.m. due to the forecast for afternoon rain, Steuerwald said he challenged his team to handle the potential distractions and take the regular season title.

"We talked about it in a group text this message," Steuerwald said. "We told them their families were here, their friends were here and we wanted them to be present and in each moment on the field today. And they did a fantastic job today."

In the opener, Parrott retired the first six batters she faced and 15 of 17 overall with 12 strikeouts and the Rhinos scored five times in the first inning, once in the third and four times in the fourth to wrap up a win by the 10-run mercy rule.

Yalich's 2-run home run highlighted the first inning rally that also featured Parrott's RBi double for the game's first run, Lilly's triple and Hunt's RBI double.

Plaskin had a safety squeeze bunt to drive in the third inning run.

And Yalich, Lilly and Salter had RBI singles in the fourth.

in the nightcap, Tomlinson yielded one run in the first, two in the fourth and Parrott retired nine of the 10 she faced in relief aided by a double play started by second baseman Lilly and turned to shortstop Queen to first baseman Yalich.

Parrott (triple) and Yalich (double) had back-to-back run-scoring hits to overcome the early 1-0 deficit in the two-run first inning and the Rhinos scored four times in the second, once in the third and once in the fifth.

Two errors aided the four-run rally and Queen and Parrott had ground rule RBI doubles in the third and fifth innings, respectively.

Gaston College returns to action next Thursday in a 4 p.m. doubleheader at Montreat College and closes its Region 10 Division I schedule on April 22 in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Spartanburg Methodist.

"We just need to keep building in the next couple of weeks and, hopefully, we'll play our best ball yet," said Steuerwald, whose team plays in the Region 10 postseason tournament in West Columbia, S.C., from May 4 through 6.