Mullins shining in opportunities on national JUCO power

Imagine if you will, the picture of a college softball team where former Lee County star Savanna Mullins is the third-best pitcher on her own team.

That’s not because Mullins isn’t doing well—she certainly is—but because her Gaston College team is really, really good, and Mullins is doing her part in that.

Mullins is a freshman on a Rhinos team that enters a weekend series at USC Union with a 33-3 overall record, and is ranked No. 13 in the nation at the highest level of junior college softball.

She has taken turns both in the field and on the mound for the Rhinos, a powerhouse member of the NJCAA Division I/Region 10 that posted a 49-9 record a year ago. Mullins, the 2023 Sandhills Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and 2024 SAC Co-Player of the Year, signed with Gaston right before Christmas of 2023 and then played one more season for the Lady Jackets.

As a senior, she hit .433 with nine doubles and three home runs, while striking out 157 batters in 111.2 innings on the mound, helping Lee County make the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

As mentioned previously, Gaston is so loaded with talent that it’s difficult for incoming freshmen to break into the lineup, but Mullins has made an impact both with the bat and on the mound.

She has 38 plate appearances this season and hit .400 (12-for-30) in them, with two doubles, a triple and a home run. She’s scored 15 runs and driven in 12, while walking eight times, for an on-base percentage of .571 and a slugging percentage of .633. She is one of eight players on the team with a .400 or better average.

Her best game as a hitter came on Feb. 1 in the second game of a doubleheader against Caldwell Community College, a game that Gaston trailed 6-3 after two innings of play.

With the score 6-4 in the fourth, Mullins started a six-run rally with a solo home run. She came up a second time later in the inning and had an RBI single to make it 10-6 in Gaston’s favor. Finally, in the top of the sixth, after Caldwell had tied the game at 10, Mullins won it for the Rhinos by knocking a single back up the middle, driving in the winning run in an 11-10 victory.

Oh, and by the way, she also was the winning pitcher after starting the game as the DH. She tossed four innings, allowing four hits and just one run, coming in to stop Caldwell’s last rally that tied the game and then finishing up.

As a pitcher, that was one of her eight wins this season. A few rough outings have left her with a 4.80 ERA for the year, but she also owns an 8-1 record in 51 innings of work. The win over Caldwell was her only relief appearance to go with eight starting assignments. She has an excellent 42-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Mullins is one of two student-athletes with local ties playing for the Rhinos this season, and not the only one who is a .400 hitter. Former Grace Christian School legend Brandon Crabtree is in his second season at Gaston as a member of the school’s baseball team ranked 23rd nationally, and like Mullins, he is also hitting .400, as the team’s starting first baseman.

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