From staff reports
West Rowan junior shortstop Philip Miclat has verbally committed to Boston College’s baseball program.
West coach David Wright said Miclat, an excellent student, plans to sign a National Letter of Intent with the Eagles in November.
Miclat, who plays summer showcase ball, has quickness on the bases and is a slick fielder. He batted .350 with 13 steals as a sophomore and earned all-county honors.
He is batting close to .400 with 15 steals for the Falcons so far this season.
Miclat’s brother, Greg, played at Concord Jay M. Robinson before signing with Virginia. The junior is batting .338 with 23 steals for the Cavaliers.
A story on Miclat is upcoming.
– SAC tournaments
Catawba’s top-seeded baseball team starts the SAC tournament at noon on Thursday at Lenoir-Rhyne against No. 6 seed Wingate.
* Catawba’s sixth-seeded softball team plays No. 3 Wingate at Newberry on Thursday.
* Catawba’s third-seeded women’s tennis team is home against Newberry in the first round today, while the sixth-seeded Catawba men are at Newberry on Tuesday.
* SAC men’s and women’s golf tournaments will be held today and Tuesday at Lake Hickory Country Club.
– Minor Leagues
Spencer Steedley (East Rowan) was the winning pitcher for Beloit in an 8-3 victory over Fort Wayne on Sunday.
Steedley (1-0) allowed one run in three innings of relief and struck out five.
* Zach Ward (A.L. Brown) pitched a scoreless frame for New Britain in a loss to Portland on Sunday.
Ward’s ERA is still 0.00.
* Lancaster starting pitcher Jaymie Russ (NW Cabarrus) was knocked out in the third inning in a California League game against Lake Elsinore on Saturday.
Russ (0-1) allowed four earned runs and struck out two. Lake Elsinore won the game 11-1.
– College baseball
Kyle Seager (NW Cabarrus) hit two homers to lead North Carolina to a 4-3 victory over Clemson on Saturday and hit another homer in an 8-4 victory over the Tigers on Sunday.
* Belmont’s Daniel Wagner (South Rowan) went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in an 11-5 victory over Stetson on Saturday. Wagner scored twice in a 14-3 rout of the Hatters on Sunday.
* Whit Merrifield (Davie) squeezed home a run in an 8-6 victory over Auburn on Saturday.
* Zachary Glass (Salisbury) went 2-for-4 with a run-scoring double in a 9-2 loss to Carson-Newman on Saturday and homered and drove in three runs against the Eagles in a 10-9 setback on Sunday.
* Garrett Sherrill (A.L. Brown) pitched two innings and earned his fourth save of the year in Appalachian State’s 5-3 victory over Georgia Southern on Sunday.
– Intimidators win
The Kannapolis Intimidators took advantage of errors and rallied for five runs in the eighth inning to beat the Hickory Crawdads 5-3 at “The Cannon”on Sunday evening.
Jose Martinez drove in Christian Marrero with the go-ahead run.
Charlie Shirek pitched well for the Intimidators, who finish the series tonight at 7:05 p.m.
– Summer baseball
The Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League will have a number of local standouts on their roster when a new season begins in late May.
Pitcher Rudy Brown (South Rowan, Surry CC), catcher Ryan Query (A.L. Brown, Catawba), pitcher Alex Fairweather (Catawba), second baseman Daniel Wagner (South Rowan, Belmont) and shortstop Chris Ahearn (Catawba) will play their home games at Asheboro’s historic McCrary Park.
Other familiar names on the Asheboro roster are Randolph Legion stars Ben Bunting (North Carolina) and Justin Yow (UNC Pembroke), former West Forsyth standout Greg Holt (North Carolina) and Tusculum’s Sean Cotten (Lake Norman).
* Catawba slugger Jerry Sands and Charlotte’s Ross Steedley (East Rowan) are listed on the roster of the Wilson Tobs of the CPL.
* Pitcher Blake Ketner (NW Cabarrus, Catawba) will return to the defending CPL champion Thomasville HiToms.
* Third baseman Craige Lyerly (East Rowan) is returning to the defending champion Morganton Aggies team of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League and will be joined by Catawba teammates Kevin McMillan (North Rowan) and Keith Carrigan.
* Kyle Seager (NW Cabarrus) will be back in the Cape Cod League, the top summer wood bat league in the country. He’ll be on the Chatham A’s along with UNC teammate Alex White.
South Carolina’s Whit Merrifield (Davie County) is also headed to the Cape Cod League. He’ll play for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
– Handy signs with RCC
Salisbury’s John Handy has signed with Rockingham Community College’s basketball program.
Handy, 6-foot-7, averaged 4.3 points a game for the Hornets as a senior and finished strong. He averaged 9.4 points in the Hornets’ last seven outings, including a career-high 18 in Salisbury’s 59-54 victory over North Rowan in the CCC tournament championship game.
RCC is located in Wentworth, N.C.
A story on Handy is upcoming.
– ACC softball
N.C. State beat Maryland 7-6 on Sunday in Raleigh on Senior Day and won the series two games to one.
Former West Rowan players started for both teams, with Blair Harkey in center field for the Wolfpack (25-20, 8-7) and Devon Williams playing third base for Maryland (30-12, 5-7).
– Catawba softball
Catawba seniors Jac White and Sarah VanBuskirk will play their last home games today when the Indians take on Chowan at Whitley Field at 3 p.m.
White, a West Rowan graduate, owns a stack of Catawba career, season and single-game records for hitting and fielding.
A story on White is upcoming.
– College track
Appalachian State’s Phillip Bush (North Rowan) finished fifth in the long jump with a season-best effort of 23 feet, 3 1/2 inches in Saturday’s Waldrop UNC Invitational.
– SAC basketball
Newberry named Sean Page as its new women’s basketball coach.
Page comes to Newberry after two seasons at Brescia in Owensboro, Ky.
– Rowan Alliance
The Boys U13 Rowan Alliance club finished its spring season in the Charlotte Area Youth Soccer League with six wins and two ties in eight outings.
Rowan scored 23 goals and allowed three. Rowan played in a the U13 Challenge division of CAYSL with only one 13-year-old. The others players were 12s playing up and made a smooth transition from 8-man to 11-man soccer.
Coaching the team is Dr. Yut Sukkasem, with assistance from Dr. Mark Lins.
This team is the oldest of seven playing within the Rowan Alliance family. The teams practice at Salisbury Community Park.
Rowan Soccer Alliance also runs a recreation program at the fields that focuses on basic soccer skills, while the challenge clubs introduce tactical and technical elements of soccer. Frank Cardelle is the director of Rowan Alliance.
– Carolina Masters
The first race of the CCTTA cycling season was held recently at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord.
A total of 294 riders competed over the10-mile distance.
Finishing first in their divisions were Ryan Jenkins, Masters 35, and John Patterson, Masters 45.
Both are members of the Salisbury-based Carolina Masters Cycling Team and claimed category championships in 2007.