East Gaston takes third place in Gaston County Baseball Tournament

GASTONIA – When East Gaston began the Gaston County Baseball Tournament at Sims Legion Park this week, they entered the tournament slumping – having lost three of the last four – and paired against unbeaten South Point in the first round.

After Friday’s 6-4 victory over Cherryville for third-place in the eight-team tournament, the Warriors will enter the final 10 days of the regular-season with some much-needed momentum.

“It was a good week for us,” said East Gaston coach Randy Sellers, whose team beat South Point 1-0 on Monday and lost 10-2 to North Gaston on Wednesday in its other tournament games. “Hopefully, that’ll motivate us the rest of the season.”

Winning on Friday wasn’t easy for the Warriors (10-8) as they fell behind 3-0 after one inning before rallying for the victory.

“I’ve been talking to the kids all year long about playing all seven innings,” said Sellers, whose team has three games left in its MEGA 7 3A/4A Conference schedule. “That’s what I said after the first inning when they took a 3-0 lead. And I have to give the kids credit, they played all seven.”

Brandon Bates led a five-hit offense with two of East Gaston’s five hits and retired the final six outs to pick up the save for starter and winner Ethan Frazier.

After yielding a two-out, three-run homer to Blake Mosteller in the first inning, Frazier battled throughout his five-inning stint to pick up the victory. A junior right-hander, Frazier yielded five walks, five hits and four runs (three earned) while striking out eight.

Bates led off the second with a single to center and scored the Warriors’ first run on Tyler Persinger’s sacrifice fly to right. Justin Williams’ RBI single and Bates’ sacrifice fly knocked in two third-inning runs. Then two unearned runs in the fourth gave East Gaston the lead for good. Persinger’s RBI double in the fifth accounted for the final run.

“Now they helped us some with walks and errors, but I was proud of how we kept fighting and battling,” Sellers said.

For Cherryville, Dylan Hastings had two of the six hits, including a first-inning double two batters before Mosteller’s second home run of the five-day tournament.

To contact Richard Walker, email Rwalker@GastonGazette.com.