Gaston College softball reflects on extraordinary season

For the third time in four years, Gaston College's softball team finished its season in the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series.

Each time, the Rhinos lost their first World Series game to the team that would eventually win the national championship - Florida SouthWestern State in 2023, Northwest Florida State in 2025 and Northeast Alabama this year.

Following this year's second straight 60-win season, coach Michael Steuerwald says he could not be prouder of how well his players have consistently, persistently built the the program since it began five years ago with one season as a club team.

"I think it's hard for a coach to look at his team for the last time and be able to look at them in the face and honestly tell them they wer leaving the program in a better place than they found it," Steuerwald said. "You always hope your kids will do that.
"But, year-in and year-out, we've been able to say that to our sophomore group."

This group of sophomores - Sophia Barone, Katelyn Brandon, Arissa Duff, Jamie Hearn, Mary Hinson, McKenna Jones, Jalyn Kopp, Addison Marr, Savanna Mullins and Kara Thomas - leaves behind another strong legacy.

And Brandon, Duff, Hinson, Jones, Marr and Mullins have been key pieces to teams that went 125-11 the past two seasons. In this year's World Series, freshman third baseman Miranda Wall was named to the all-tournament team after hitting .500 in Gaston College's four games.

"There's not a program in the country, including Oklahoma, that's done that," Steuerwald said. "And I think we're the only junior college program the last two years to get 60 wins two years in a row.
"That says a lot about that group and the way they competed."

A year ago, led by standouts like Kendall Bradshaw, Kristyn Ezzo, Sarah Johnson and Grace Kealy, the Rhinos were a star-driven squad.

This year, a team that saw 17 players get 20 or more at-bats and five pitchers toss 30 or more innings carried the Rhinos to similar success.

"I don't know that we really had the standout people like last year, but this group as a collective whole founds ways to compete no matter who I put in the lineup," Steuerwald said. "I certainly had more lineups this year than last and everybody that was in the lineup founds way to compete and produce and help the team win."

Gaston College has now finished 13th, 4th and 12th, respectively, in its three World Series appearances that each followed Region 10 and Mid-Atlantic District titles. And in the year in which the Rhinos didn't make the World Series, they won the Region 10 regular season title in 2024 before falling in the region title game.

"I told our group how just proud I was of them after the last game ended," said Steuerwald, whose team had its finale postponed 10 hours due to rain in the Oxford, Ala., area. "It was a really long day for us. We left the hotel at 9 in the morning and came back a couple of times during the day just for short periods during the rain delay.
"So when we walked off the field at midnight our time, I was really happy with the team and how we played."