From staff and wire reports
Catawba’s top-seeded baseball team crushed Carson-Newman 12-0 on Thursday afternoon and stayed alive in the double-elimination SAC Tournament being played at Forest City’s McNair Field.
J.J. Jankowski pitched seven innings of shutout ball and limited the Eagles to two hits.
Chris Dula was 5-for-5, including a home run. Garrett Furr and Austin Moyer also homered. Brett Underwood had three hits, and Julio Zubillaga (Carson) had two hits and three RBIs.
Catawba (37-9) faces another elimination game today against Lincol Memorial at 3:45 p.m.
Wingate’s Justin Somers struck out 11 and led the Bulldogs (32-20) to a 3-1 win against Lincoln Memorial in the SAC Tournament on Thursday.
Andy Vogel hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth to key Newberry’s 5-4 win against Tusculum in the SAC Tournament.
Randy Shepherd (West Rowan) is 5-1 on the mound for Catawba Valley Community College.
College softball
Lauren Lewis belted two homers, including a grand slam, and Khourtni Hester also hit a grand slam as Catawba overpowered Brevard 11-2 in a winners bracket game in the SAC Tournament.
Third-seeded Catawba (31-17) plays top seed Lenoir-Rhyne today at 1:30 p.m. in the winners bracket final.
College golf
Livingstone’s men’s golf team finished sixth in the CIAA Championship.
Michael Thornton was the leading Blue Bear, finishing in a tie for 11th. He shot 81-76 — 157.
Thornton and Lawrence McKenzie were named to the All-CIAA team.
College tennis
Catawba’s Kasia Zielinski and Thomas Mitchell were named All-SAC second team.
They were the No. 1 seeds for their respective squads.
Prep baseball
Dusty Agner pitched a one-hitter on Thursday as North Rowan stayed in the YVC race with a 1-0 win against East Montgomery.
“We finally played an errorless game,” North coach Aaron Rimer said.
Agner struck out nine and faced two over the minimum. Shortstop Wesley Barker had seven assists to anchor the defense.
North was limited to five hits. Matt Mauldin was 1-for-2 and scored a run. Tyler Wyatt had two hits, including a double, and had the only RBI for the Cavaliers.
North plays at home tonight at approximately 7:30 p.m. against Central Cabarrus in the Cliff Peeler Baseball Classic.
West Davidson (13-5, 7-1) survived an upset bid by Thomasville and won 3-2 in a CCC game on Thursday. Jake Walser (3-1) was the winning pitcher.
Prep softball
Chelsea White stuck out 10 batters as East Rowan’s softball team thumped South Rowan 11-0 for another NPC win.
East (15-1, 10-0) pounded out 15 hits.
South fell to 3-7 in the league.
East’s senior class, led by White, is 77-11, while winning four straight NPC titles.
Jayvee baseball
East Rowan’s jayvees beat South Rowan 11-7 to win the NPC title with a 10-2 record.
Dustin Ritchie had the game-winning RBI for coach John McNeil’s club, and Holden Ingold was the winning pitcher.
Pro baseball
The New York Mets placed Bobby Parnell (East Rowan) on the 15-day disabled list with discomfort in his right middle finger. The 26-year-old right-hander has a 6.14 ERA in eight appearances this season.
The Kannapolis Intimidators used six shutout innings from Matt Heidenreich and three RBIs by Dan Black to beat the West Virginia 4-1 in SAL baseball on Thursday.
It’s been good news and bad news for southpaw Spencer Steedley (East) at Double A New Britain so far.
Steedley has struck out eight while walking only one in his four appearances. The bad news is he’s allowed five earned runs in 52/3 innings.
Jackson second baseman Kyle Seager (NW Cabarrus) is off to a little bit of a slow start in Double A, but he had three hits on Wednesday and three RBIs on Thursday. He’s batting .259.
Winston-Salem second baseman Daniel Wagner (South Rowan) was 1-for-6 in a 12-inning game on Wednesday and 1-for-4 on Thursday. He’s batting .245.
Whit Merrifield (Davie) is batting .304 as the leadoff man for Wilmington in the Carolina League. He was 1-for-4 on Thursday.
Infielder Chris Ahearn (Catawba) had two hits for the Rome Braves on Wednesday and is batting .222.
Hagerstown’s Wade Moore (Catawba, West Rowan) was 1-for-2 with two RBIs on Thursday. He’s batting .154 in 39 at-bats.
Moore’s famous teammate Bryce Harper is batting .261 with two homers.
Middle school golf
Concordia won a golf match at Warrior by shooting 160.
Salisbury Academy shot 166, and Sacred Heart finished at 190.
Sacred Heart scores included Michael Childress (39), Spencer Storey (47), Alex Antosek (49), Chris Queen (55), Carolina Parrott (57) and Brandon Fortin (58).
The conference tournament is May 3 at Warrior.
Middle school soccer
Erwin’s girls beat North Rowan 4-0. Kelly Porter scored twice for a 2-0 halftime lead. Arisa McDonald had both assists on corners.
Kaleigh Troutman scored two unassisted goals in the second half.
North Rowan’s boys topped Erwin 2-0.
Scoring for the Mavericks from open play was Narciso Alvarez. He was assisted by Brian Reyes with a beautiful throughball.
Jesus Huerta scored the second goal off his stomach as he ran onto an Arnold Lezama cross from the left wing.
Playing well defensively for the Mavericks were Felipe Carranza, Gustabo Villalobos, Francisco Nunez, Christian Uribe, William Reese and goalkeeper Dylan Auten.
Middle school tennis
North Rowan lost to Erwin 7-2.
Winners for the Mavericks were Nnamdi Osakwe in singles and Osakwe-Nick Leverett in doubles.
Local golf: Young ace
Tim Young made a hole-in-one from the white tees on the No. 6 hole at the Country Club of Salisbury.
Young used an 8-iron.
Witnesses were Jeff Davis and Jack Seybold.
Youth baseball
The Rowan County Hawks lost to Powercross 11-4 on Thursday.
Dylan Snider, Austin Love, Hunter Shepherd, Dylan Koontz and Noah Jarrett had hits for the Hawks (11-4).
The Hawks play Saturday at York Prep.
Pro football
CHARLOTTE — New Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera will make his debut against the New York Giants — based on the large assumption the current labor mess is resolved and there’s a normal preseason.
The Panthers have released their four-game exhibition schedule. If the lockout is over, the Panthers will open against the Giants at home the weekend of Aug. 12-14. Exact dates will be released later.
The Panthers will then visit Miami and Cincinnati the next weeks before the preseason finale against Pittsburgh at Bank of America Stadium, likely on Sept. 1.
Rivera was hired earlier this year to replace John Fox after Carolina went an NFL-worst 2-14.
Fire kills horses
ROCKY MOUNT — North Carolina investigators say a discarded cigarette may have sparked a trailer fire on Interstate 95 that killed six thoroughbred horses.
One of the first firefighters on the scene said the trailer was fully engulfed when they arrived and the horses appeared to have died already.