Gaston College closes out Region 10 Division I schedule with 15th straight victory

One day after losing their 14-game winning streak in a non-conference doubleheader defeat, Gaston College closed out its Region 10 schedule in impressive fashion.

Brantleigh Parrott pitched a 2-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts in a 5-0 win in the opener at Spartanburg Methodist and Tessa Hunt followed up with a 4-hit shutout in an 8-0 win in the nightcap.

The sweep was the Rhinos' 16th of the season and gives Gaston College 15 straight Region 10 victories after dropping the region opener on March 3. Gaston College improved to 38-8 overall and 15-1 in Region 10 Division I play.

"I told our group how proud I was of them to go 15-1 in region play after losing the first one," said Gaston College coach Mike Steuerwald, whose team clinched the Region 10 Division I regular season title in an April 14 doubleheader sweep of USC Sumter. "And we did it a lot of different ways. You know, we had some 1-0, 2-0 wins and we've had some slugfests in there and everything else in between.
"And it speaks volumes about our group after as bad as we played yesterday that we came back and played well today."

Parrott improved to 19-0 on the season with her eighth shutout of the season.

Serena Yalich had three hits and two RBIs in the opener and her two-out RBI single in the top of the first inning knocked in the game's first run. Gabrielle Porterfield added two hits, including a double, and one RBI.

In the nightcap, Hunt improved to 9-3 with her third shutout of the season.

"She just did a really good job of mixing and locating and our infield did a really good job making plays behind her," Steuerwald said of Hunt, who had a no-hitter for 3 1/3 innings. "The hits they got were infield hits with weird spins and well-placed hits.
"And she worked herself out of two jams - bases loaded twice - in the fourth and fifth innings."

Porterfield (3 hits) and Yalich (2 hits, 1 RBI) closed out 5-hit days to lead the offense that also got two hits apiece from Haylee Salter and Gracie Brown.

Next week, the Rhinos close out their regular season with a Wednesday 3 p.m. doubleheader at Louisburg and a Friday 2 p.m doubleheader at Surry Community College; Louisburg is No. 2 in the current National Junior College Athletic Association Division II rankings and Surry is No. 6 in the Division III poll.

"For us, Louisburg is a really good opponent and they've got a really solid program and done a good job making the World Series," Steuerwald said of Louisburg's nine all-time World Series appearances that include three in a row. "It's a good kind of barometer for us and where we want to go.
"Playing two top 10 teams to end the regular season is a really good test for us."