From staff reports
Catawba’s surging baseball team swept a doubleheader from Newberry at Newman Park on Sunday and moved into a tie for first place in the SAC with Tusculum.
Catawba (13-4, 8-1) romped 10-2 in the opener as Nick Lomascolo (3-2) allowed one earned run in six innings and struck out three. Ethan Satterfield had three hits, including a three-run homer, and Chris Dula had a two-run double. Keaton Hawks and Ryan Bostian (South Rowan) had two hits apiece.
In the nightcap, 23rd-ranked Catawba pulled out a 4-3 decision on Cameron Beard’s walkoff single. Greg Lawson had a two-run single. Beard had three hits, while Brett Underwood had two.
John Tuttle (A.L. Brown) didn’t get credit for the win but had a strong start. He allowed two hits in five innings and struck out four. Ross Whitley (4-1) won in relief.
Noah Holmes (East Rowan) stayed hot for Appalachian State on Sunday.
He had four hits, including two doubles, as the Mountaineers pounded Rider 15-4.
Trey Holmes (East) scored twice for the Mountaineers.
Justin Roland (East) had two hits and two RBIs for Charlotte in an 11-0 rout of Wagner, and Ross Steedley (East), Corbin Shive (East) and Justin Seager (NW Cabarrus) drove in one apiece.
Caleb Shore (South) had two hits and drove in a run as Belmont Abbey pounded St. Andrews 13-4 on Sunday.
On Sunday, Pfeifer swept Limestone 7-6 and 6-1.
Women’s hoops
Catawba’s women’s basketball team had one of those days in a 65-41 loss to Wingate in the SAC tournament championship game played in Hickory on Sunday.
Early foul trouble and dismal shooting plagued the Indians, who trailed by 10 at halftime and never mounted a charge in the second half.
Catawba missed its first nine shots before Taylor May (South Rowan) made a bucket after six minutes had elapsed.
Catawba shot 13.8 percent (4-for-29) before halftime and 23.3 percent for the game.
The second-seeded Indians (18-10) finished 3-for-25 from the 3-point line, and even 15 offensive rebounds didn’t really matter with so many shots failing to drop.
Chloe Bully scored 14 points for the Indians. Dana Hicks had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Quaneasia Coleman came off the bench to pull down 10 boards.
Bully and Hicks made the all-tournament team.
Former Statesville star Janitsha Williams led the top-seeded Bulldogs (22-7) with 16 points. Wingate’s Nikki Burton (13 points) was named tourney MVP.
The good news is the loss didn’t prevent the Indians from getting an at-large bid to the Southeast Regional.
Seeded eighth for the regional, Catawba will play the top-seeded regional host USC Aiken on Friday. Time is TBA.
CATAWBA (41) —Bully 14, Hicks 11, Long 6, Morrison 4, Connor 2, May 2, Welfare 2, Sullivan, Coleman, Merritt. Clay, Lewis.
WINGATE (65) — Williams 16, Burton 13, Washington 10, Wollett 10, Boston 4, Rutledge 3, Brown 2, Dunbar 2, Burnick 2, Weekly, Montgomery, Bonner, Anderson, DeBerry, Thompson.
Catawba 15 26 — 41
Wingate 25 40 — 65
College hoops
Wingate’s third-seeded men jumped out to a 16-2 lead and held off Anderson 66-59 to win the SAC tournament championship in Hickory on Sunday. Jamie Vaughn led the Bulldogs with 22 points.
Top-seeded Anderson’s Denzail Jones was still named tourney MVP. He had 19 points in the final.
Jones scored a tournament-record 50 in Anderson’s 113-106 double-OT win in the semis against Newberry.
The Tusculum and J.C. Smith women received regional at-large bids, along with the Lincoln Memorial, Anderson and Shaw men.
College softball
Union’s Gina Loflin (West Rowan) went 3-for-3 on Saturday in a win against Grace College. Loflin has a team-leading eight RBIs.
College track
USC-Upstate’s Ross Oden (East Rowan) was an Academic All-Atlantic Sun pick. The chemistry major has a 3.446 GPA.
Local golf
The team of Mike Frye-Matt Hilton shot 59-62 — 121 and won the championship flight of the Warrior Two-Man Mulligan Tournament on Sunday. Frye and Hilton won by three strokes over Blake Ray-Roy Dixon.
Also in the championship flight were Corey Basinger-Gordon Preddy (125), Anthony Baker-Chad Byrd (128), Jon Adams-Chad Williams (128), Chris Smith-Jerry Wright (130), Thad Sprinkle-Eric Mulkey (131) and Bill Meek-Mike Mills (133).
Hurley YMCA
Registration for Hurley YMCA adult church basketball is $450 per team.
Coaches meeting is on March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the gym. Practice times and rules will be discussed.
Practice starts March 12. Regular season starts March 19.
Prep football
YVC member East Montgomery has named Phil Collett as its new head football coach.
Collett has been coaching at Auburn High in Riner, Va., since 2007.