Gaston College wins opener of NJCAA East District tournament on Friday

Gaston College took charge of the game in the third inning and used strong pitching to down Potomac State, W.Va., 5-3 on Friday in its opening round game of the National Junior College Athletic Association Eastern District tournament at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park.

The victory advances the Rhinos (46-10) into the winner's bracket final of the 4-team, double-elimination tournament against Region 10 rival Florence Darlington Tech (49-11) at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. The winner advances to Sunday needing whomever it faces to beat them twice.

"It's interesting that two Region 10 teams are in the winner's bracket," Gaston College coach Shohn Doty said. "I think that says a lot about our region and Florence Darlington and ourselves have been ranked all year long.
"We feel like we're a top 10 team in the country. The difference between now and three weeks ago is that we're wearing visitor's uniforms but we're at home. And I think that's going to count for something. It should be a helluve game and I'm excited about it and happy for our kids."

Three weeks ago, Florence Darlington Tech took three of four games over visiting Gaston College in a regular season-ending series that gave the Stingers the Region 10 regular season title. Florence Darlington won 14-5, 8-1 and 7-6 in 8 innings before the Rhinos won 7-4 in the series finale.

The Stingers had to rally from a 5-3 deficit after five innings to tie Harford, Md., at 5 before Florence Darlington won 6-5 in 11 innings.

Gaston College fell behind 1-0 after one inning but the Rhinos struck for three runs in the second inning and two in the third to take control of the game. Potomac State scored twice in the fifth to account for the final margin.

"I thought their starter (Alexander Meckley) was really, really good," Doty said. "There was traffic every inning and we were able to get him out of the game" after five innings.

Kyle McKernan started and went six innings before relievers David Sande (2 innings) and Landon Carr (1 inning) closed out the victory.

"Kyle settled down after the first and was really, really good and then we had great bullpen work," Doty said.

Enrique Wood led off the second inning rally with an infield hit and advanced to second and third on ground outs before scoring on Miller St. John's RBI single tied the score at 1.

After St. John advanced to third on a wild pickoff throw, Konni Durschlag hit a RBI single and Wade Kelly followed with a RBI triple for a 3-1 lead.

In the third, Preston Hall scored after singling, advancing to third on a throwing error and scoring on a wild pitch. Wood, who reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, advanced to third and scored on Seth Christmas' RBI single.

Kelly (2 hits, triple, 1 RBI), St. John (2 hits, 1 RBI) and Trey Truitt (3 walks) led Gaston College's 8-hit offense.

Daily admission to the Eastern District tournament is $15 and children 5 and under are free. Gaston College students can get free admission with a Gaston College issued ID or class registration. Gaston College faculty and staff can get free admission with their staff ID or college name badge and families of staff and faculty will still have to pay admission).

Here's the full schedule for the 2020 NJCAA Eastern District tournament at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park:

(Friday, May 12)
Game 1: No. 2 Harford, Md. (34-16-1) vs. No. 3 Florence Darlington Tech (48-11) - Florence Darlington Tech 6-5 in 11
Game 2: No. 1 Gaston College (45-10) vs. No. 4 Potomac State, W.Va. (30-16) - Gaston College 5-3
(Saturday, May 13)
Game 3: Florence Darlington Tech vs. Gaston College, 11 a.m.
Game 4: Harford, Md. vs. Potomac State, W.Va., 2:30 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 5 p.m.
(Sunday, May 14)
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 winner if it is the Game 5 winner, 45 minutes after Game 6 ends