Staff reports

Catawba’s baseball team lost to second-ranked North Greenville, 6-5, on Wednesday at Fluor Field.

Catawba (19-18)  had the lead a couple of times. Joe Butts stroked a two-run double in the first inning for a 2-0 lead.

Catawba took a 5-4 lead with a three-run sixth. Jacob Nester singled in two runs.

But North Greenville’s Crusaders  (29-5) tied the game in the bottom of the  sixth and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth.

Bryan Ketchie (West Rowan) was the starting pitcher for Catawba and allowed two earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts in five innings. Sawyer Stickland (Homeschool Stallions) took the loss.

Prep softball

The Civitan softball tournament starts today at  Salibury Community Park.

     

5 p.m.

Cox Mill vs. Mooresville

Carson vs. Central Cabarrus

7 p.m.

West Rowan vs. Mount Pleasant

East Rowan vs. South Rowan

Minor leagues

RICHMOND, Va. — Former Catawba College baseball star Jerry Sands has been reassigned by the San Francisco Giants to Richmond, the team’s Double A affiliate.

Sands, who was assigned to Triple A Sacramento when the Giants broke spring training on March 23, was moved before the minor league season started.

Sands played in an exhibition game between Sacramento and the Giants on March 24, hitting a two-run homer, giving the Rivers Cats a 5-4 lead. Sacramento went on to win, 6-5.

Sands played in 64 games for Richmond last year, hitting .298 with 26 extra-base hits (5 HR) and 28 RBI.

Sands, 30, is in his 11th season of professional baseball, after being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008, following his junior season at Catawba. He is from Clayton and still lives near Raleigh in the offseason.