From staff and wire reports
While it won’t count in the SAC standings, Catawba’s baseball team pounded out a satisfying 20-7 win at Wingate on Tuesday.
Catawba (29-8) scored 12 times in the second inning and enjoyed its biggest offensive explosion of the season.
In the huge inning, Josh Hohn had a two-run single, Chris Dula had an RBI single, and Ryan Bostian (South Rowan) and Hohn banged out RBI doubles.
Joe Kase started on the mound for the Indians and cruised to a win after allowing a two-run homer by Dodson McPherson in the first inning.
Catawba amassed 19 hits.
Blake Houston (South) went 3-for-4, drove in three runs and scored three. Dula went 3-for-4, and John Neese went 3-for-5 and scored three times.
Catawba is up to No. 9 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll.
Pfeiffer fell to Tusculum 7-2 on Tuesday.
Many more sports briefs are on Page 4B.
College golf
Livingstone’s men’s golf team finished fourth in the Winston-Salem State Golf Challenge.
LC’s Lawrence McKenzie shot 74-84 — 158 and tied for sixth individually.
Catawba’s women’s golf team rallied to tie for fifth in the McAmis Memorial held in Greeneville, Tenn.
Catawba shot 316-327 — 643.
Leslie Long led the Indians individually. She shot 80-79 – 159 and finished 14th.
Youth basketball
The Salisbury Kings 8th-grade basketball team competed in the West Region state qualifying tournament held in Forest City.
The Kings went 2-2, defeating the Mt. Luxor Rockets from Concord twice.
Preston Dalton averaged 17.5 points and 11.3 rebounds in the tournament to lead the Kings. Naquis Caldwell and Travis Littlejohn also provided lots of offense.
Dominique Upchurch, Eric Finger and Joshua Endicott were defensive stalwarts. Endicott went 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.
The Kings will enter the state championships in May seeded fifth.
Homeschool hoops
RALEIGH — Fifteen-year-old Rebecca Lobach of Durham is an efficient shooting guard who won statewide honors among her peers this winter. She’s been home-schooled her entire life, which means her parents have ferried her hundreds of miles a year to round out her education with the competition that comes with sports.
Her parents have sent Rebecca to summer basketball camps at Duke and gotten her to practice for church league teams, but more recently Rebecca’s competition in a statewide athletic conference created for home-schooled children has meant driving to games as far away as Greensboro and Fayetteville.
A proposal now in the General Assembly would give Rebecca’s parents a break by requiring that her local public school allow her to play as if she were enrolled there.
West Rowan perfect
West Rowan reached the halfway point of the NPC season with a perfect record after beating North Iredell 5-1 on Monday.
West (9-1, 6-0) got two goals each from Allison Baucom and Brittany Gibbons, and one from Toni Lucente.
Gibbons, Lucente and Meredith Stanley were credited with assists.
Freshman Madison Muire earned the hustle award, coming off the bench to win multiple loose balls in the midfield and giving the Falcons a lot of energy.
“I thought some players came off the bench and gave us a real spark when things weren’t going well tonight,” West coach Nick Brown said. “I’m happy to be 6-0 after the first half of the conference season and I hope we can keep rolling.”
North Iredell’s goal was scored by Hannah Mae.
Prep tennis
Salisbury battled through windy conditions and easily beat CCC opponent East Davidson 9-0 on Monday.
Steven Page, Alan Lebowitz, Lewis Young, Seth Gentry, Brock Overcash and Alex Weant recorded singles wins.
West Rowan lost to Statesville 6-3 in a tight match filled with tiebreakers. The Greyhounds have swept West and are in the driver’s seat to win the NPC championship.
Ben Wilson won in singles for the Falcons, and Chris Holmes-Kevin Robinson and Wilson-Tyler Mullis prevailed in doubles.
See Scoreboard.
Prep golf
Salisbury’s deep boys golf squad rolled in a CCC match at Colonial on Monday.
Troy Beaver shot a 36 to lead the Hornets. Other scores were Roy Dixon (37), Alex Lee (37), Alex Nianouris (37), Clark Alcorn (39) and Eric Edwards (41).
Central Davidson’s Chase Parks was medalist with a 35.
Salisbury holds a comfortable lead in the season CCC race after two matches. Dixon (69) leads the individual derby, with Lee (71) in the second place.
East Rowan won Monday’s NPC golf match at Twin Oaks by four strokes and made up some ground on league leader Statesville. The Greyhounds still lead by four shots for the season.
East shot 160 to top Statesville (164), Carson (170), West Rowan (175), South Rowan (179), North Iredell (188) and West Iredell (191). Mason Preslar and Conner Lowman shot 38s for the Mustangs and shared medalist honors. Weston Rogers and Preston Rogers shot identical 42s.
Carson got 42s from Andrew Purcell, Christian Shuping and Rob Sawyer. Matt Yates and Ryan Craft shot 44s.
Jake Kennedy fired a 39 to lead West. Other West scorers were James Decoster (42), Chris Hassard (43) and Clay Cranford (51).
Evan Neas and Nick Goodnight paced South with 42s. Josh Lowder shot 46, and Luke Rary shot 49.
Prep baseball
Everything on Tuesday’s diamond schedule was wiped out by storm-related issues. East Rowan-Carson, West Iredell-West Rowan, South Davidson-North Rowan and Salisbury-Lexington will be played today.
South Rowan-North Iredell was rescheduled for Thursday. North will play at Salisbury on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
College hoops
Catawba’s Dominick Reid, Livingstone’s Darius Cox and Pfeiffer’s Chris Woods were named to the NCSSIA All-State men’s basketball squad. Woods was first team, while Cox and Reid made the second team.
Former Campbell basketball standouts Brad Childress and Denise Ford Shipman will be inducted into the Campbell Hall of Fame on Friday. Childress played for the Camels from 1986-90, and was a 1,000-point scorer. He still holds the school record for steals and ranks third in assists.
Childress’ father, Tom, was head coach at Pfeiffer for 14 seasons and is now senior vice president of development at Catawba.
Catawba Valley Community College will hold men’s basketball tryouts this Saturday at noon.
College baseball
Justin Roland (East Rowan) had four hits as Charlotte (23-6) swept a weekend series from Xavier. Ross Steedley (East) had a quiet weekend but is hitting .342 for the 49ers. Corbin Shive (East) is batting .391 in 23 at-bats for Charlotte.
Trey Holmes (East) hit a three-run homer and knocked in four runs in Appalachian State’s 10-5 win against N.C. A&T on Tuesday.
Bryan College’s Jason Ridenhour (North Rowan) earned two wins over the past week, and Tanner Brown (North) picked up a save. Ridenhour is 5-2, while Brown is 5-1.
Billy Veal (North) homered for Bryan in both games of a doubleheader on Saturday. Veal is batting .340 with eight homers and 29 RBIs.
Alex Britt (Salisbury) is tied for the Carson-Newman staff lead in strikeouts with 46.
College softball
Livingstone fell 11-2 and 9-1 to St. Augustine’s in a CIAA doubleheader on Monday.
Catawba-Mars Hill was postponed by snow and rescheduled for Thursday.
Middle school baseball
Southeast rallied from a 7-0 deficit to beat West Rowan 9-8. Chris Peacock was the winning pitcher and hit a game-tying double. Matt Saul had the game-winning RBI single in the seventh.
North Rowan Middle (1-3) beat Knox 6-5 in extra innings on Monday.
Brandon White went the distance on the mound and scattered seven hits. Corey Fries blasted a homer and a double, and Garrett Miller had two hits.
Middle school golf
China Grove’s boys defeated Erwin 175-184 at Warrior on Monday. Davis Richards of China Grove was medalist with a 33, followed by Erwin’s Logan Shuping with a 36.
Other scorers for the Red Devils (2-0) were Bobby Bauer (46), Brenan Lambert (48) and Aaron Rousey (48).
Jacob Durham shot a 46 for the Eagles (2-2). Jimmy Ritchey shot 50, and Ben Rollins carded a 52.
Erwin’s girls posted a team score of 224, with Grace Stokes shooting a 52. Other scorers were Riley Padgett (53), Macey Trexler (57) and Carlie Darnell (62).
Middle school tennis
Knox defeated North Rowan 8-1.
Knox singles winners were Abraham Post, David Derrick, Robbie Slate, Zane Gray and Quson Brown.
Post-Derrick, Slate-Evan Dunn and the colorful pairing of Gray-Brown won in doubles.
Nicholas Leverett won for the Mavericks.
Youth baseball
The Rowan Hawks AAU team beat Sheets Memorial 13-8 on Monday. Austin Love, Noah Jarrett and Pearce Wilhelm had two hits each. Sawyer Strickland was the winning pitcher.
The Hawks (7-2) play at Concord Middle on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Youth track
Sacred Heart won the “Run With the Dolphins” track meet held at Salisbury High, with Community School of Davidson finishing second, and Salisbury Academy finishing third.
Competition was held in many events and in several age groups. SH and SA athletes with exceptional finishes are listed:
Boys
First place — Riley Dillon (50 meters, 75 meters, 200 meters); Hassan Biggus (50, 75, 200, 400, standing broad jump); Nathan Malnar (100, 200); Miles Lester (softball throw); Sean Archer (softball throw); Brody Dillon (long jump, triple jump); Will Murdoch (100, 200, 400, long jump, standing broad jump); Reilly Gokey (800, mile, softball throw); Carter Jenkins (mile); Matt Frank (long jump, standing broad jump)
Second place — Matt Frank ( 50, 75, 200); William Austin (50, 75); James Metz (200); Reilly Gokey (100, 200, 400); Matt Washko (mile)
Third place — Miles Lester (50, 75, 200); Brody Dillon (50); Sean Archer (75); Julian Malnar (200, 400); William Austin (400)
Girls
First place — Mary Grace Metz (50, 75, 200, softball throw, standing broad jump); Kailah Johnson (50, 200, 400, standing broad jump); Anna Hester (75, softball throw); Anne-Marie Metz (100, 200, 400, standing broad jump); Julia Honeycutt (long jump, softball throw, triple jump); Meghan Hedgepeth (100, 200, 400, softball throw); Bess Bryan (1600); Elle Wimmer (long jump)
Second place — Kathryn Marino (50); Kailah Johnson (75); Anna Hester (200, 400); Julia Honeycutt (200, 400); Elle Wimmer (100); Kayla Honeycutt (200, 400); Mimi Webb (800)
Third place — Alexis Miller (200); Anna Hester (50); Julia Honeycutt (100); Abby Lee (200); Gillian Morris (400); Elle Wimmer (200); Kayla Honeycutt (100); Mimi Webb (400).