From staff reports
Official pairings for Friday’s first round of the prep baseball playoffs haven’t been posted by the NCHSAA yet, so North Rowan’s fate as a 1A wild card remains unknown.
The pairings appear to be clear-cut for the other local teams.
In 2A, Salisbury will be at home against Piedmont.
The Hornets were eliminated 6-5 by Piedmont in a first-round matchup in 2011.
In 3A, NPC regular-season champ and top seed East Rowan will be at home against SPC No. 4 seed Hickory Ridge.
Also in 3A, NPC tournament winner and No. 2 seed Carson will be at home. Parkwood should be the opponent.
NPC No. 3 seed West Rowan is headed to Weddington for a first-rounder.
NPC No. 4 seed South Rowan will be at Southern Carolina No. 1 seed Marvin Ridge. Expect an afternoon game if Marvin Ridge still has no lights.
SPC champ Northwest Cabarrus expects a first-round matchup with Northern Guilford.
If Carson and Northwest both win openers, they would meet at Northwest in the second round. The Trojans have beaten the Cougars twice this season.
If East wins its opener, it would be at home again on Tuesday against Mount Pleasant or Harding.
Prep tennis
Salisbury’s second-round 2A dual team match against Maiden was rained out on Tuesday. The Hornets plan to play today at 4 p.m.
NCHSAA state individual tennis championships in singles and doubles will be decided this weekend.
The field in each classification was narrowed to 16 singles players and 16 doubles teams through regional play.
Two rounds of the state event will be played on Friday, with semifinal and championship matches on Saturday.
The 2A championships will be held at Cary Tennis Center, while the 3A event is at Burlington Parks and Recreation Tennis Center.
In 3A, Charlotte Catholic’s Kyle Johnson is seeking an unprecedented fourth straight singles title.
Eric Saunders of Salisbury (1991-93) is one of a handful of players to win three individual state titles. Another three-time winner was Durham Hillside’s John Lucas (1970-72), who went on to basketball fame at Maryland and the NBA.
In 2A singles, Salisbury’s Michael Ogden opens against Maiden’s Zach Huffman.
In 2A doubles, Salisbury’s pair of Alan Lebowitz-Abraham Post is matched up with Black Mountain Owen’s Oscar Zamora-Ben Keefer.
In 3A singles, Carson’s Hayden Faulkenberry has a first-round match against Kings Mountain’s Chaney Barnes.
Prep track
Athletes will compete in a busy weekend of track and field as the NCHSAA begins its state championships this weekend.
Boys and girls 2A championships will be decided on Friday, with 1A state championships contested on Saturday. Both meets will be held at North Carolina A&T.
Action in the field events begins at 10 a.m. and running events will start at 11 a.m.
The 3A and 4A meets will be held next weekend.
North Rowan’s boys are the defending 1A champion and won the Midwest Regional on Saturday. Other regional champs were Pamlico, North Carolina School of Science & Math and Hendersonville.
College baseball
No. 2 seed Bryan was eliminated by Union in the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament, a loss that’s expected to end the season for the Lions and the careers of former North Rowan standouts Jason Ridenhour, Billy Veal, Tanner Brown and Justin Mock.
Bryan (41-18) broke the school record for wins.
Ridenhour was on the mound in the final game, pitched eight innings and struck out seven.
Brown went 10-3 with a 3.18 ERA and was named to the all-conference first team.
Ridenhour was 8-5 and struck out 84 in 80 innings.
Veal batted .264 with 11 homers and 45 RBIs.
Mock batted .209 with eight RBIs in 43 at-bats.
Tusculum (46-8) is ranked second in Division II in the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Coaches Poll.
The No. 2 ranking is the highest in school history.
Tampa is ranked No. 1.
Catawba is 19th.
The Peach Belt Conference Tournament starts today in Columbus, Ga., and figures to determine whether or not Catawba gets a regional bid.
Catawba is currently ranked sixth in the region, and six teams will go to the regional, but if a team ranked below Catawba wins the Peach Belt tourney that team would earn an automatic bid and knock Catawba out.
Catawba should be in good shape if Armstrong Atlantic, Francis Marion or USC Aiken wins the tournament, but the Indians are probably out of luck if Montevallo, Lander, Georgia State, Columbus State or North Georgia wins it.
College softball
Gina Loflin (West Rowan) completed her career by batting .398 as a senior for Union College (Ky.) in the Appalachian Athletic Conference.
She was the all-conference catcher and was named AAC Player of the Year.
Loflin had five homers, 34 RBIs and 34 runs scored, all team highs.
Defensively, she was even better, committing one error and throwing out 16 of 17 runners who tried to steal.
Middle schools
Boys tennis
Knox defeated a short-handed West Rowan team on Monday.
West forfeited all but one match. Seth McLendon won 8-3 in singles for the Trojans.
Girls soccer
West Rowan defeated China Grove 1-0. Josie Heglar scored the goal on an assist by Madeline Wilhelm.
Mooresville topped Southeast’s girls 2-0.
Alicila Bautista, Alexa Escobar, Maria Delgado and Graciela Nunez led Southeast’s defense, and Tera Pena was excellent in goal.
Boys soccer
Southeast beat Mooresville 5-3 in the Patriots’ toughest match of the season.
Brandon Flores, Ricky Maldonado led the Patriots. Both had two goals and one helper.
Raunel Vasquez had a goal and two assists. Danny Nava scored a goal, and Pedro Perez had an assist.
The defense was led by Michael Rosas and Peter Lor.
Boys track and field
Mooresville scored 171 points to run away with the conference track meet.
Erwin took second with 121.5 points. Knox was third with 62, and Southeast placed fourth with 55.
Southeast’s Zachary Marchinko broke the conference record in the 1600 (5:07.08) and also won the 800.
See Scoreboard for results.Golf
Salisbury Academy and Sacred Heart ended their seasons with a nine-hole conference championship match at Rock Barn on Tuesday.
Sacred Heart’s Michael Childress got off to a 3-under start after four holes and tied with Concordia’s Matt Reitzel with the best score at 35. Reitzel won a playoff hole with a birdie for medalist honors.
Concordia shot 158 to win the team event.
Sacred Heart, coached by Charlie Graeber, was second at 167. Other scores were Alex Antosek (41), Spencer Storey (43), Adam Habeeb (48), Will Casmus (48), Carolina Parrott (59) and Reilly Gokey (60).
Salisbury Academy, coached by Brian Lee, was third at 179.
Grace Yatawara shot 36 to lead the Jaguars. Other SA scores were Robbie Bergstone (39), Harrison Smith (51), Boyd Temple (53), Jacob Crosby (54) and Thomas Cummings (59).
Other scores were Burlington Christian (198) and Hickory Christian (204).
Childress, Antosek, Storey, Yatawara and Bergstone made all-conference.
Local golf
On Tuesday, Eddie Goodnight made a hole-in-one on No. 14 at The Country Club of Salisbury from senior tees, measuring 130 yards.
Witnesses were George Glover and Melvin Shumate.
Winners in Corbin Hills Women’s Golf Association play on Tuesday were Treva Honeycutt, (gross first place), Beth Calhoun (gross second place), and Mary Seaford (gross third place).
Shirley Baucom placed first in net play. She was followed by Eileen Full and Sharon Deal. Joy Maughmer won low putts.
Seventy-one GARS members played a Captain’s Choice event earlier this week.
Four teams tied at minus-13.
The team of O.J. Chandler, Jim Harris, Fred Medlin and Jack Swicegood won in a scorecard playoff.
The other teams in the tie were Grady Howard, Frank Masingo, Vohn Peeler and Jeff Williams; Jim Bain, Butch Grambow, Les Loman and Scott Miller, and Buddy Barger, Carrol Downey, Clive Mahaffey and Tom Talbert.
Chandler won closest to the pin on No. 2. while Jim Diffenderfer won longest putt on No. 9.
Kannapolis’ Rick Lewallen shot 1-over 72 in the first round of the BB&T Carolinas Open in Brown’s Summitt.
Pro baseball
The Kannapolis Intimidators were rained out on Tuesday.
No makeup date has been set.
The Intimidators will travel today and open a series against Delmarva in Salisbury, Md., on Thursday.
Craige Lyerly (East Rowan, Catawba) went 1-for-2 for the Charlotte Stone Crabs on Tuesday and scored a run.
Seattle’s Kyle Seager (NW Cabarrus) had some success against Detroit ace Justin Verlander late Tuesday night.
In his first three at-bats, Seager had a double, a single and a steal and drove in a run.
Youth soccer
FCCA announced a five-year extension on an agreement with Strikers Soccer Center.
FCCA integrates players from Cabarrus, Huntersville and Salisbury into the Classic and Premier levels of play in NCYSA and has brought forth talented and competitive teams.
FCCA will field boys U14, U15, U17 and U18 Premier teams for 2012-13.