Area Athletes Update: Poole
Published 11:12 pm Monday, February 16, 2015
Area athletes update …
Senior Jessica Heilig (Salisbury) scored 22 points and had eight rebounds for Gardner-Webb in a 75-62 women’s basketball victory against Winthrop on Saturday.
Heilig reached the 1,000-point mark for her career last week with a layup against Charleston Southern.
A late bloomer, Heilig has been a bigger scorer in college than high school, which is a rare thing.
She scored 649 points at Salisbury and averaged 9.7 points per game as a senior. She played on three straight 2A state championship teams for the Hornets from 2009-11.
• Olivia Rankin (Salisbury) had 10 points and seven rebounds for Charlotte in Saturday’s 74-54 win against Texas-San Antonio.
• Ayana Avery (West Rowa) made two 3-pointers and scored eight points in Radford’s 64-57 win at Charleston Southern on Saturday. Avery has made 63 3-pointers this season.
• Fayetteville State’s Doreen Richardson (Salisbury) had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists in Saturday’s 62-55 loss to Winston-Salem State.
• Shay Steele (West Rowan) scored 12 points in Morehead State’s 57-56 loss to Belmont on Saturday.
Men’s basketball
Brevard’s Darius Moose (Carson) had 24 points and three blocked shots in Saturday’s 79-65 loss to Coker.
Moose averages 17.1 points per game for the Tornados.
• Isaiah Cuthbertson (West Rowan) made a game-winning layup for Mars Hill with less than a second left against Queens on Saturday.
Cuthbertson scored 16 points and had nine rebounds.
•Keshun Sherrill (West Rowan) scored 22 points to lead GRU Augusta to a 77-66 win against USC Aiken.
The Jaguars have won eight in a row.
College softball
Sydney Poole (East Rowan) pitched a shutout for Pfeiffer on Friday against Winston-Salem State.
Poole (2-2) pitched a four-hitter and struck out five.
• Ericka Nesbitt (East Rowan) is off to a great start for Campbell. The shortstop batted .481 and scored nine runs in her first seven games.
• North Carolina A&T’ second baseman Zebresha Blakeney (A.L. Brown) went 3-for-9 with three runs in her first four games of the season.
• Belmont Abbey’s Kat Starnes (South Rowan) had two hits and drove in a run in a loss to Montevallo.
College baseball
Freshman Connor Johnson (East Rowan) is 3-0 for Catawba. Johnson has a 1.65 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.
• Catawba center fielder Blake Houston (South Rowan) is batting .455 with 12 runs scored in nine games.
• Freshman Chance Bowden (Salisbury) has knocked in seven runs for Catawba.
• Jesse Park (Carson) has pitched two scoreless innings in relief for Pfeiffer.
• East Carolina’s Eric Tyler (South Rowan) had a double on opening day against Virginia.
• Ryan Foster (Davie) pitched five innings in his first start and beat Ball State.
• Guilford’s Michael Pinkston (West Rowan) had a hit in his first college at-bat on Saturday.
College swimming
Queens freshman McKenzie Stevens (Salisbury) was outstanding in the Bluegrass Conference Championships.
Stevens was part of a 4×800 free relay team that broke the meet record with a 7:16.26 clocking.
Stevens placed third in the 200 butterfly and fifth in the 1000 freestyle.
College tennis
Christopher Newport’s Alexandra Drye (Salisbury) is off to a great start.
Drye has played at No. 1 and No. 2 singles and is 3-0. She’s also 3-0 playing at No. 3 doubles.
Pro baseball
Jerry Sands (Catawba) will be with another new team in Spring Training.
Sands, 27, signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians.
Sands has batted .240 with five homers in 273 MLB plate appearances with the L.A. Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays.