Peacock hopes to continue football career at Catawba

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 25, 2013

From staff reports

Carson graduate Devon Peacock hopes to play football for the Catawba Indians this season as a walk-on.
The odds are always long for walk-ons, but Peacock, an offensive lineman, has beaten long odds before.
His junior football season in 2011 ended with a devasating injury that might have been career-ending, but he was able to return to the field that spring for the baseball season.
Peacock was an All-North Piedmont Conference lineman as a senior for the Cougars last fall. His best game may have been against South Rowan. He helped pave the way for a huge night for running back Brandon Sloop — 245 yards on 37 carries.
Peacock’s senior baseball season also was a success. He batted .342 as a DH and pinch hitter for an NPC championship team.
Peacock considered playing at Methodist, but the plan now is to continue his football career with the Indians.
Dakota Brown (North Rowan, Wilkes CC) has a 3-4 record for the Carolina Freedom of the All-American Collegiate Baseball League. He has a 4.57 ERA and 26 strikeouts.
Forrest Buchanan (Salisbury, Belmont Abbey) has a 2-2 record for the Carolina Freedom. He has a 7.52 ERA and 18 strikeouts.
Bradley Robbins (East Rowan, Tallahassee CC) has a 3-2 record for the Rowan Patriots. Robbins has struck out 50 batters in 34 innings and has allowed only 19 hits and two earned runs. His ERA is 0.53.
Roby Holmes (East, Catawba Valley CC) is batting .289 for the Rowan Patriots.
Dylan Walker (South Rowan, CVCC) is 0-2 with a 7.77 ERA for the Rowan Patriots, although he pitched six innings in a 1-0 loss in his last outing.
Jacob Wright (A.L. Brown, Bluefield) is batting .314 for the Rowan Patriots.
Ross Whitley (Lake Norman, Catawba) is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts for the Mooresville All-Americans.
Postseason play in the All-American Collegiate Baseball League is scheduled for today at Staton Field. See Scoreboard.
In the Southeast Regional on Thursday, East Rowan Diamond Sports’ 9U all-stars won 16-6 against Henry County (Tenn.) Franklin, Tenn., in their first game and topped Glen Allen, Va., 7-6 in their second outing.
The American Legion state tournament begins today with four games set for Wilson’s Fleming Stadium.
Fleming Stadium opened in 1939 and has plenty of history. Among other things, Hall of Famer Rod Carew played there for Wilson’s minor league team in 1966.
The field of eight teams will compete in a double-elimination tournament that will last through Tuesday.
In today’s games, Shelby (34-7) plays Kernersville (29-8) at 9:30 a.m., while Randolph County (30-5) battles Lincoln County (20-14) at 12:30.
Garner (22-5) plays Jacksonville (13-21) at 4:30, while Wilmington (25-1) takes on Wilson at 7:30.
Wilmington and Randolph rolled through area playoffs without a loss.
Wilmington is the defending state champion and seeks its 10th title. Wilmington Post 10 and Gastonia Post 23 have won nine championships each to lead all of the state’s programs.
Randolph County Pos 45 won the state tournament as recently as 2008 and will be the host team for the Southeast Regional that will be held at McCrary Park on Aug. 8-12.
If Randolph wins the state tournament, the state runner-up will join Randolph in the regional.
Kernersville has won the state championship as recently as 2010.
Shelby’s most recent state championship was in 2001.
Garner most recently won the state championship in 2004, although it had to vacate that title due to an ineligible player.
The state tournament went to a single-site format in 2000 (prior to that teams played series until only one team was left standing). Lincoln County, Wilson and Jacksonville are all in the state tourney for the first time.
Jacksonville was a third-place team in its four-team division but got hot at the right time and reached the Area II championship series to qualify for state play.
Wilson is in the tournament because it’s the host but doesn’t figure to be a pushover. Wilson won two playoff series before losing to perennially strong Pitt County.
Corey Seager (NW Cabarrus) had two hits on Thursday to push his batting average to .302.
• Northwest Arkansas’ Whit Merrifield (Davie, South Carolina) has been hot the last month and has pushed his batting average to .271 after a slow start.
• The hitting woes for the Kannapolis Intimidators continued in a 4-0 loss to Hickory on Thursday.
The Intimidators wasted seven shutout innings by Michael Recchia (eight strikeouts) when the Crawdads thrived against the Kannapolis bullpen.
Kannapolis had only four hits in the contest, with Jacob May collecting two.