From staff reports
Qualifying for the 31st Annual Horace Billings Rowan County Amateur golf tournament will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Corbin Hills.
Billings is currently hospitalized at Rowan Regional and will be sidelined for this year’s event.
Residents of Rowan or members of Rowan clubs are eligible for the event. Entry fee is $20 and does not include green and cart fees.
Qualifying is stroke play. The top 31 qualifiers and defending champion Ronnie Eidson advance to match play July 17-19.
– Rowan Junior Open
The first round of the Rowan Junior Open was held at Irish Creek on Monday.
Russ Piercy led the overall boys division with a 73. Alex Nianouris (Salisbury) tied for second with Marshall Ritchie at 74.
Salisbury’s Roy Dixon and Troy Beaver were among a group tied for fourth at 75. Gray Stone’s Chad Blankenbeker shot 77.
Mooresville’s Anthony Perrino and China Grove’s Davis Richards shot 73s to pace the 11-13 boys division.
Salisbury’s Bryson Sprinkle led the 8-10 boys division with a 49 for nine holes. Kannapolis’ Walker Cress shot 54.
Leading the overall girls division with a 77 was Salisbury’s Madison Kennedy. Lake Norman’s Hayley Hammond, who signed with N.C. State, shot 79.
Catherine Parks (Salisbury) shot 87. Katie Knepp (West Rowan) shot 88. Lily Yatawara (Salisbury) shot 92.
Play starts today at Warrior at 8 a.m. Spectators are welcome.
– GARS
Seventy-two GARS members played with a Captain’s Choice format at Corbin Hills on Monday.
The winning team of Don Bishop, Bill Bradley, O.J Chandler, Richard Cortie and Frank Masingo shot minus-14.
Willie Beaver, K. Beaver, Jay Boyce and Dorsia Atkinson shot minus-13 and tied for second with the team of Bobby Clark, Carrol Downey, Donald Martin, Nelson McDaniel and Jeff Williams.
Masingo made the longest putt on No. 9. Les Loman and Tony LaBarbera won closest to the pin holes.
– American Legion
No. 4 seed Stanly County won 6-4 at Lexington on Monday to close out a first-round series 3-1 and will play Rowan County at Newman Park on Wednesday.
Round 2 is best-of-five. The series must be completed by July 13. No. 2 South Rowan is at home against No. 3 Mooresville in Wednesday’s series opener.
A Legion official stated Monday night that the Rowan-Stanly winner will play the Burlington-Randolph winner in the third round, while the South Rowan-Mooresville winner will take on the Western Forsyth-High Point winner. The third round is best-of-five and begins July 14.
* South Rowan’s Caleb Shore has 84 career RBIs and needs five to break Daniel Wagner’s program record. … Shore collected his 115th hit Sunday and has passed both his brothers on the all-time list. Brett had 114 and Ronnie 110. … South lefty Cam Park won the 10th game of his career Sunday. He’s only the fourth in program history to reach double-digit wins. … After winning its first-ever playoff series with Wilkes, South stands 48-49 all-time in playoff games. South is 4-3 against Mooresville in the playoffs.
– Junior Legion
Rowan County opened a best-of-three playoff series with a 14-2, five-inning win against Eastern Randolph on Monday.
Rowan took charge with seven runs in the first inning.
Nathan Fulbright, Andy Austin, Jamey Blalock and Chris Jacobs had two hits each. Luke Thomas belted a two-run homer, his fifth of the season.
Will Johnson was the winning pitcher. Bradley Robbins and Alex Bost worked in relief.
Game 2 is in Ramseur tonight.
– Owls ranked No. 1
The Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls are ranked No. 1 among all the nation’s wood-bat league teams by Perfect Game.
The Owls (28-4) have gotten a big boost from Wade Moore (West Rowan, Catawba). He’s batting .306 with 22 steals and 22 runs scored.
– Intimidators lose
The Kannapolis Intimidators lost to Delmarva 5-1 at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium on Monday.
Drew Garcia drove in the only run for the Intimidators.
Stephen Sauer (4-3) took the loss, allowing one earned run and seven hits in five innings.
– Minor leagues
Bristol’s Daniel Wagner (South Rowan) had two hits and collected his ninth RBI in a 4-0 victory against Johnson City on Monday.
– Tim Smith (Catawba) pitched a scoreless inning for Savannah in a 5-3 SAL loss against Greenville on Monday.
– Jerry Sands (Catawba) is leading the Pioneer League with a .473 batting average. He has five homers and 14 RBIs in 13 games.
– Round Rock’s Jeremy Johnson (Mooresville) pitched 62/3 innings without allowing an earned run in his most recent Triple-A outing against Memphis.
Johnson is 5-6 with a 3.24 ERA.