From staff reports
A 3-on-3 basketball tournament will be held on Saturday, May 10, at Royal Giants Park in East Spencer.
The tournament starts at 10:30 a.m. and is open to the public.
The entry fee for a team is $45. Teams need a name.
There is a cash reward and a trophy for first place and the winner will be entered in the 3-on-3 Showdown in Atlanta this summer.
Call 704-633-1858 for information.
– Record purses at Lowe’s
Drivers will be racing for a record $6.6 million purse in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
A record $14.7 million will be paid out for all the events at Lowe’s later this month. Nine races will be run at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the Dirt Track at Lowe’s between Friday night, May 16, and Sunday evening, May 25.
Already one of the richest races on the NASCAR circuit, the Coca-Cola 600 purse will be $78,290 more than last year’s event and is over $4 million richer than it was just 10 years ago.
“Things have changed so drastically that it’s hard to compare prize money from the early years of the sport to today,” said Humpy Wheeler, LMS president and general manager.
Competitors in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race and the Sprint Showdown on May 17, will compete for a record $4,308,251. The winner will receive over $1 million.
A purse of $1,287,710 will be offered for the CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 on Saturday, May 24, and a purse of $78,540 will be posted for races at the Dirt Track on Friday, May 23.
– Bobby Jackson camp
The 12th annual Bobby Jackson Basketball Camp will be held on July 20-24 at Hall Gym, Livingstone and Salisbury High.
The camp focuses on fundamentals, conditioning and leadership skills.
The daily schedule begins with open gym at 8:30 a.m.
Campers should register on Sunday afternoon between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Campers should be picked up at 4 p.m.
Lunch is provided Monday through Thursday.
Contact Andrew Mitchell at 704-267-1122 (cell) or 638-4261 (home) for information.
– Minor league hurlers
New Britain’s Zach Ward (A.L. Brown) continued his outstanding work in the bullpen with two scoreless innings in a 5-3 Eastern League victory against Bowie on Tuesday.
Ward (2-0) made his 12th appearance, pitched the seventh and eighth innings and was credited with the win.
Ward’s ERA is down to 0.46. He’s allowed one earned run in 192/3 innings.
* Beloit southpaw Spencer Steedley (East Rowan) struck out three batters in 11/3 innings in a scoreless relief outing on Monday. Steedley’s ERA is 1.83. He’s fanned 27 in 192/3 innings.
* Binghamton’s Bobby Parnell (East) squared his record at 2-2 on Wednesday when he threw five innings in a 9-7 Eastern League victory against Reading.
Parnell allowed three hits, six walks and two runs in five innings.
– College baseball
Four of Division II’s top teams will be at Newman Park today and Friday.
Catawba plays Erskine at 4 p.m. today. The teams are tied for 19th in the national poll.
No. 1 Mount Olive will scrimmage No. 14 Tusculum at Newman Park at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. today. Catawba plays Erskine at noon on Friday and scrimmages Mount Olive after that game.
All four teams appear headed to regional play. Tusculum (South) and Mount Olive (South Atlantic) have secured berths. Catawba (South) stands third in its region, while Erskine (South Atlantic) is fifth. Catawba expects to get word on a regional bid on Sunday.
* Belmont’s Daniel Wagner (South Rowan) went 2-for-4 and scored twice in a 5-3 win over Tennessee on Wednesday.
* Davidson’s Brett Shore (South) had three hits and two RBIs, but the Wildcats were swept 19-9 and 7-1 by Elon on Wednesday.
– Legion baseball
Mooresville has released its American Legion schedule.
Post 66 opens with games at Cherryville on May 17 and Denver on May 18 and plays its first home game against Denver at 6 p.m. on May 19.
– Gray Stone soccer
Ashley Harrington scored four goals to lead Gray Stone to an 8-2 victory over West Wilkes in the first round of the 1A state playoffs on Wednesday.
Molly Peele, Caitlen Corbett and Sarah Brown also scored for Gray Stone.
– Golf state championships
All four NCHSAA boys golf state championships will be played at different sites on Monday and Tuesday.
The 4A championships are at Pinehurst No. 6, with the 3A championships at Foxfire in Pinehurst. The 2A championships will be decided at Longleaf in Southern Pines, and the 1A title will be settled at Keith Hills in Buies Creek.
– Ed Welch golf event
A record number of two-member teams will tee off in the 27th annual Ed Welch Women’s Golf Tournament next week at two local courses.
The entry list has reached 18, one more than last year. The first round will be played Tuesday at Corbin Hills Club, with the final round set for the Country Club of Salisbury on Thursday.
A luncheon and awards ceremony will be held after the final round.
Sharon Miller and Yvonne Barger are defending champions.
– Catawba golf
Senior Allen Tuttle, representing Catawba as an individual at the Southeast Regional Men’s Golf Tournament, capped his career by shooting an even-par 72 in his final round.
The event concluded on Wednesday. Tuttle had a three-day total of 223 and finished 16th out of 45 golfers.
Georgia College & State University won the team title to advance to the D-II Nationals. The Bobcats topped USC Aiken by 12 strokes.
Tuttle posted a school-record stroke average of 73.38 this season, bettering the mark of 74.32 set in 1998 by Nick Sabol. He had seven top-10s over his 10 tournaments this season and nine of his 21 rounds were under par. He finished with a career stroke average of 77.18, eighth best all-time. Tuttle is the fourth Catawba men’s golfer to qualify for NCAA regional play as an individual, joining Nick Sabol (1998), Steven Harvey (2004) and Richard Lowe (2006).
– Catawba soccer camps
Catawba soccer camp dates for this summer are June 15-19; June 29-July 3; and July 20-24. Contact coach Craig Turnbull at 704-637-4348 or e-mail cturnbulat catawba.edu.
– Catawba soccer recruits
Catawba men’s soccer coach Craig Turnbull announced six signings.
Set to join Catawba this fall are Tim Finotti, Jr. (Hendersonville), Alex Koslick (Matthews), Josh Payne (Candler), Matt Price (Burlington), Carter Richardson (Peachtree City, Ga.) and Kevin Sorensen (Matthews).Finotti, a 5-foot-11 striker, started four years in high school, the last three at West Henderson. He was named all-conference, all-region and All-Western North Carolina as a senior. He scored seven goals and had 27 assists.
Koslick, a 6-0 forward was team captain at Providence and all-conference.
Payne, a 6-1 goalkeeper, was a three-year starter at Enka. He was captain and earned the Coaches Award.
Price, a 6-0 midfielder/defender, started two years at Williams High School. He was named all-conference and all-region as a senior, scoring six goals with five assists.
Richardson, a 6-0 striker, started three years at The Woodward Academy.
Sorensen, a 6-0 midfielder, was a three-year starter at Butler. He served as captain and was named team MVP.
– Iredell phenoms
Two NPC juniors in Iredell are attracting attention. West Iredell receiver Quan Rucker has received offers from Illinois, N.C. State and Virginia, while Statesville basketball point guard Keyrra Gillespie has offers from Clemson, Florida and Charlotte.
– College softball
Zoe Heim pitched a three-hittr and Whitney Hickam hit a two-run homer to lead Carson-Newman to an 8-0 victory over Pfeiffer in the first round of the South Atlantic Regional.
* Lenoir-Rhyne’s Meredith O’Connor fanned five to break her own SAC record for strikeouts in a season (320), but the Bears lost 2-0 to North Georgia in the first round of the South Atlantic Regional.
– CCC softball
Central Davidson beat West Davidson 10-0 and Ledford beat East Davidson 1-0 to advance to the CCC tournament semifinals.
East Davidson and West Davidson met Wednesday to determine the No. 3 seed for the 2A playoffs, while Central took on Ledford for the championship.
– Carolina Preps
Former South Rowan coach Chris Hughes has his new Carolina Preps Web site up and running. The site focuses on high school football in both Carolinas.