From staff reports
Ronnie Eidson will occupy one of the seeded spots for the sixth annual Rowan Masters Golf Tournament at the Warrior Club here.
Eidson captured the qualifying medal with a 5-under 66 0n Sunday.
Eidson will be seeded second in the field of 32 golfers.
Defending champion Keith Dorsett will be the top seed in the event, which begins Friday. The second round will be played Saturday, and the finals will be the following Sunday.
Dorsett will be a player to watch. The Masters has been held five years and Dorsett has won the event four times. He took the first Masters in 2003. Gary Miller won it in 2004. Then Dorsett captured the last three.
Fifty-one golfers played the qualifying round.
Ken Clarke took second place with a 3-under 68, and Chris Owen was next with a 1-under 70.
– Lions golf tourney
The Salisbury Lions Club held a golf tournament at Corbin Hills on Saturday.
The winner of the First Flight with a score of 54 was the foursome of Susan Morris, Wayne Bostian, Wayne Kennerly and Ronnie Eidson.
The winner of the second flight via scorecard playoff with a 61 were Bob Clement, Walt Wagoner, J.C.Ritchie and John Henderlite. They won over Barry Curlee, Mickey Landreth, Jeff Howard and Matt Rouzer.
The winner of the third flight via scorecard playoff were James Taylor, Eddie Taylor, Pat Brown and Hugh Clifton with a score of 66. They won over Adam Taylor, Jason Grubb, George Huffman and Quinton Huffman.
The winner of ladies longest drive was Morris. The winner of the men’s longest drive was Deke Carrick.
The winner in closest to the pin was Joe Antosek.
The winner of the half-and- half for $150 was Matt Murphy.
– American Legion
Rowan County’s back-and-forth struggle with Statesville was suspended in the bottom of the sixth inning with the teams tied 5-5 on Sunday.
Rowan led 2-0 and trailed 4-2.
The game was halted first by lightning. After play resumed, rain and lightning forced a second stoppage and the decision was made to suspend play.
The game will be resumed on Wednesday at Newman Park, with Trey Holmes at the plate as Rowan’s leadoff batter in the sixth.
n South Rowan’s American Legion game with Kannapolis was rained out on Sunday and rescheduled for tonight in Landis.
Kannapolis had one on and one out in the first when the field was cleared because of lightning in the area.
Heavy rain began falling 15 minutes after the stoppage, and the decision to postpone the game was an easy one, with both teams open today.
South lefty Zach Wright and Kannapolis right-hander Ryan Overcash were the mound starters and are expected to be back on the hill tonight.
South lost at Kannapolis 12-6 early in the season in a league game and beat Kannapolis 12-2 and 14-2 in non-league contests. South (11-7, 7-4) is third in the league standings, while Kannapolis is 6-10, 5-8.
– Salisbury Palomino
Salisbury High’s Palomino baseball team opened Friday with a doubleheader at Stoner-White Stadium in Greensboro.
Salisbury lost 6-3 to Rockingham County, a team made up of players from Eden Morehead, Reidsville and Rockingham.
Robbie Ijames singled and scored on a double by David Ijames to tie the game 1-1 in the the fifth, but Rockingham scored three runs in the sixth to take the lead for good. Forrest Buchanan homered with Doug Seaman aboard for Salisbury’s last two runs.
In the second game, Salisbury rallied from a seven-run deficit to win 12-11 against the Greensboro Patriots, a team made up of players from Southwest and Northwest Guilford.
David Ijames pitched four solid innings in relief of starter Zach Burkhart (West Davidson), and Dakota Brown (North Rowan), who relieved in the seventh, was the winning pitcher
Salisbury started its comeback with a five-run sixth. David Ijames, Brown, Buchanan, and Philip Tonseth delivered key hits. Salisbury tied the game with a three-run seventh, and Robbie Ijames drove in Tonseth with the game-winning run in the eighth.
Salisbury is scheduled to be at home for a doubleheader on Tuesday.
– Intimidators fall
The Kannapolis Intimidators lost 8-7 to the West Virginia Power in a game stopped by rain in the seventh inning.
Umpires waited 43 minutes before officially calling the game. Attendance was announced at 1,609 at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.
Kannapolis (2-2) had a four-run first inning that included a two-run double by Lee Cruz. Jim Gallagher finished with three RBIs.
The teams conclude a five-game series today at 11:05 a.m. Gates open at 10 a.m.
– Coastal Plain League
Keegan Linza (North Rowan) evened his record at 2-2 on Friday in a 3-1 victory against Wilson.
Linza allowed only one hit in five innings. He walked three and fanned one.
* Ross Steedley (East Rowan) had two hits for Wilson in a 7-3 loss to Fayetteville on Sunday.
– Baseball connections
Appalachian State’s Wes Hobson, the son of former North Rowan athlete Gil Hobson, is batting .299 with one homer and eight RBIs for Thomasville in the Coastal Plain League.
n Charlotte’s Rob Lyerly is batting .345 with one homer and 11 RBIs for the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League. Lyerly’s parents, Robert and Sandy, are Rowan natives.
n Virginia’s Greg Miclat, the fifth- round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles, hasn’t signed yet and is negotiating with the Birds with his bat.
Miclat is tied for the lead in batting average in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Miclat is batting .444 in his first seven games with Yarmouth-Dennis and has five steals. Miclat had two hits Friday and three on Saturday.
Miclat’s brother, Philip, is an infielder for the Rowan County Legion team.
* Ryan Graepel, a sophomore who started at shortstop for North Carolina late in the season, has local ties.
Graepel grew up in Greenville, but his mother, Lisa, is a China Grove native. Graepel’s uncle, Johnny Walker, was a multi-sport athlete at China Grove High in the late 1950s, played baseball at the University of Georgia and was the catcher for the Kannapolis Legion team for five seasons, including the 1961 state championship team.
– Minor leagues
Spencer Steedley (East Rowan) was credited with the win in Beloit’s 4-1 victory over Peoria on Sunday.
Steedley pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings of relief and fanned three.
Steedley entered a 1-1 game in the eighth, and Beloit scored three runs in the 10th to win.
Steedley’s ERA is 2.13.
– Zach Ward (A.L. Brown) may be moving into the starting rotation for Double-A New Britain after spending most of the season in short relief.
Ward started and pitched four shutout innings against Connecticut in a 2-1 victory on Sunday. Ward allowed two hits, three walks and no runs and struck out four. His ERA is 2.53.n Brooklyn’s Brad Holt (Albemarle), a first-round draft pick of the New York Mets, allowed two runs in 22/3 innings and was the losing pitcher against Aberdeen on Saturday. Holt struck out four and walked one.
* Former South Caldwell star Madison Bumgarner, the first draft pick of the San Francisco Giants last June (No. 10 overall), pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out 10 in a victory for Augusta in the South Atlantic League on Saturday.
In 2005, Bumgarner homered and doubled in a 14-10 loss against Rowan at Newman Park. He saved Caldwell’s 5-3 home win against Rowan in 2005.
– Track athletes qualify
Five local track athletes coached by Kim Abdalah, qualified for the AAU Regional Junior Olympics meet to be held at the University of Tennessee in mid-July.
The athletes qualified at district competition in Gastonia at Forestview High. Sub-bantam Marianne Abdalah placed second in the 1500 in 5:57 and second in the 800 in 3:00.
Rene Abdalah placed seventh in the 800 (8-under) in 3:28.
Reilly Gokey was first in the 1500 for bantams in 5:51 and fourth in the long jump at 11 feet, 8 inches.
Brieanna Owens placed second in the 800 for bantams in 2:50.
Philip Tonseth placed third in the 1500 for intermediates in 4:41 and fourth in the 800 in 2:14.
Sub-bantam Payton Russell, who also competes for the Charlotte Heat Track Club, won the 100 in 15.19, the 200 in 30.47 and the 400 in 1:08.