From staff reports

Carson junior Owen White announced a verbal commitment to South Carolina’s baseball program on Saturday.

White, a pitcher and shortstop, is one of Rowan County’s top hurlers as well as one of the best hitters.

White  is batting .438 this season with eight doubles, a homer and 17 RBIs.

His ERA is 0.29. He’s 5-1 with four complete games. He’s struck out 75 and walked 10 in 49 innings.

White  chose South Carolina over Clemson, Florida, Mississippi State and North Carolina.

White, 6-3, 180,  is ranked as the No. 24 player in the country, regardless of position, and is considered the No. 7 right-handed pitcher in the 2018 recruiting class by Perfect Game.

He’s rated as the No. 1 player in North Carolina in his class and will get a chance to be a two-way player for the Gamecocks.

White is also  on track to be a draft pick by MLB in June, 2018.

White also has played football and basketball for the Cougars. He was second team all-county in both sports this school year.

Local golf

East Rowan senior  Nick Lyerly finished 42nd in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C..

Lyerly shot 78-74-74-226 on the 7,437-yard course. This tournament is the No. 1 junior event in golf and featured the top 54 junior golfers in the world, including golfers from 17  countries.

Lyerly was 34th in the World Junior rankings.

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  CHARLOTTE — Two local golfers are part of the 60-man field in the 37th Carolinas Mid-Amateur Championship at Providence Country Club.

Phil Miller, of China Grove, is tied for 27th at 5-over par after two rounds, shooting a 76 during Friday’s first round and a 73 yesterday.

Andrew Morgan, also of China Grove, is tied for 40th at 8-over par. He has had rounds of 78 and 74.

The third and final round is scheduled for today.

Miller and Morgan played together to win the 2015 Crowder-Dorsett Labor Day tournament. Attempting to be the first team to win back-to-back Labor Day tournaments since 1988-89, Miller and Morgan lost in the semifinals last year.

Prep baseball

The Greater Cabarrus Stallions swept a doubleheader against the Atlanta Barons on Saturday, winning, 13-11 and 4-3.

The Stallions were led in the first game by Dalton Lankford with three hits, including a double, AJ Knight had three hits. Camron Wallace and Weston Cregger had two hits each. Trent Berry picked up the win on the mound.

In the second game,  Jeremy Whitehead and  Wallace had two hits each and Reilly Ploplis  had a double for the Stallions (22-8).

Clay Pinion drove in Ploplis with the game-winning run with a single. Knight pitched a complete game.

Prep softball

Carson outscored South Rowan, 10-7, in tournament baseball on Saturday.

Riley Stewart pitched into the seventh inning for the win and struck out five.

Kaitlyn Honeycutt had three hits for the Cougars (14-8).  Jess Freeze had two hits and two RBIs.

Whitley Arnott struck out four for the Raiders.

Riley Corriher had three hits. Karley Wood had two hits. Brooke Lowery had two hits and two RBIs. Ashlyn Plott had two RBIs.

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Lowery hit her fourth homer in South’s 14-1 loss to Lake Norman on Friday. Mataya Reynolds also has four homers for the Raiders.

  

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Women’s lacrosse

Nicole Hunt  scored 30 seconds into overtime as Catawba rallied from three goals down in the final five and half minutes to top host Lenoir-Rhyne 12-11 in South Atlantic Conference women’s lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at Moretz Stadium. The win improved the Catawba Indians to 13-4 overall and 5-3 in the SAC. The Bears fell to 10-7 and 5-3.

The teams will meet again in the first round of the SAC Tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m, with Catawba hosting.

College softball

Catawba wrapped up its softball season with a pair of losses to visiting Tusculum on Saturday afternoon at Whitley Field. The Pioneers won by the scores of 16-3 and 9-8 to improve to 26-22 overall and 10-10 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Catawba Indians ended the season at 11-40 and 2-18.

Tusculum rolled to a five-inning win in the opener. The Pioneers scored six runs in the first inning and led 14-1 after three and half frames. Rachel Wisner had a two-run homer in the first and Taylor Battle a three-run homer in the fourth.

Caroline Turner doubled home a run for Catawba in the second, while she doubled and scored in the fourth. Sierrah McCarthy singled home both runs in the fourth. Turner and Beth Ann Martin ( South Rowan) had two hits for the Lady Indians.

Catawba went down fighting in the season-finale, nearly pulling out the win. The Lady Indians erased an early deficit with a five-run first. Katherine Shumaker and Leah Huggins drove in the tying runs, while Grace Holland cleared the bases with a three-run double to make it 5-2.

Tusculum pushed across five runs in the top of the fifth to regain the lead before Catawba answered with three in its fifth to lead 8-7. Singles by Taylor Martin ( West Rowan) and Kristen Stinnard  drove in the last two runs.

The Pioneers had one last answer. Emily Hester and Taylor Johnson connected on back-to-back homers to start the TC sixth, which proved to be just enough to take the one-run win.

Stinnard and Shumaker both had two hits, scored a run and drove in a run in their final game. Turner picked up a hit and scored twice in her final collegiate contest.

Prep track

West Rowan’s Nathan Zauner finished eighth in the two-mile run in the Blue Ridge Classic.

West’s Andrew Burgess was fourth in the 1600 (4:35) and third in the 800.

West’s Cameron Butler was seventh in the 800.

Intimidators

Tied at nine in the bottom of the 12th inning, Antonio Rodriguez hit a walk-off single to left field, and the Intimidators completed a seven-run comeback to defeat the Hickory Crawdads, 10-9, in 12 innings, to take the third game of a four-game set at Intimidators Stadium on Saturday night. It was the seventh win in the last nine games for Kannapolis (8-9).

Kannapolis stranded 17 runners.

Rodriguez finished 4-for-6 at the plate with an RBI, a walk and three runs scored. Tyler Sullivan also recorded four hits and an RBI and Wilfredo Rodriguez drove in three runs posting two hits in four at-bats.

Lane Hobbs (1-0, 3.52 ERA) picked up the win for Kannapolis with a scoreless 12th.

Kannapolis concludes the series against Hickory today.

 

Church softball

 

Any church looking to play in  a softball league, please contact James Taylor at 704 437 1090.   All games will be played at Enon Baptist Church located at 1875 Enon Church Road Salisbury.  Games will be played two days a week starting in May and ending up by end of June.  The format is semi-fast pitch, which allows bunting and stealing.  Great family atmosphere.