Area Sports Briefs: Smith’s homer keeps Catawba baseball alive in SAC tourney

Published 1:02 am Sunday, April 29, 2018

From staff reports

KODAK, Tenn. — Senior Kyle Smith led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a walk-off home run, and Catawba stayed alive in the South Atlantic Conference baseball tournament with a 3-2 win against Wingate on Saturday afternoon.

Smith pulled a 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall.

The top-seeded Indians (28-22)  will play at 3:45 p.m. today in the double-elimination tournament against No. 7 seed Tusculum.

Ousted from the tourney, Wingate (34-17) might still get a regional berth.

Joe Butts drove in Luke Setzer twice in the early innings for a 2-0 Catawba lead, but Wingate battled back to tie in the seventh  on Tanner Forry’s two-run homer.  Connor Johnson gave Catawba a great start on the mound, throwing seven innings. Clay Young pitched out of a jam in the top of the ninth and earned the win.

Chance Bowden had two of Catawba’s six hits.

College baseball

Third baseman Jacob Tuttle (A.L. Brown) went 4-for-6 on Saturday with two homers and five RBIs for Surry CC.

Local golf

Gary Applewhite made a hole-in-one on No. 6 at the Country Club of Salisbury.

Applewhite used an 8-iron on the 160-yard hole.

Andre Resner, Brian Kennerly and Mark Ritchie witnessed the feat.

Prep track

Carson’s Joseph Collins won the discus in Friday’s Rowan County Championships with a throw of 125 feet, 10 inches.

Collins is ranked 20th in  the state out of 570 3A throwers and fourth out of 147 juniors.

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In the Cabarrus County Championships, A.L. Brown’s Josh Parks won four events and was named MVP for both field events and sprints.

Parks broke the school and county record in the 400 with a time of 48.4 seconds.

Prep tennis

Davie County’s Ben Fleming won singles in the CPC tournament.

Prep softball

Davie County won against Oak Grove, 12-2, on Saturday.

Anna Devereaux had three hits and scored three runs. Sierra Ferguson homered and drove in three runs. Emilee Dishman had three RBIs.

Jayvee baseball

West Rowan won the NPC championship with a 7-1 league record. The Falcons were 14-3-1 overall.

Intimidators

LAKEWOOD, N.J.— Dalton Guthrie scored the winning run on a wild pitch with two outs in the 11th inning, as the Lakewood BlueClaws topped the Kannapolis Intimidators 5-4 on Saturday.

After Kannapolis’ Carlos Perez hit an RBI single in the top of the 10th, Lakewood tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the inning when Kevin Markham scored on a passed ball.

Reliever Addison Russ (3-0) went one scoreless inning, striking out one to pick up the win. Yosmer Solorzano (0-2) allowed one run and got two outs in the South Atlantic League game.

Josh Stephen homered and singled in the win.

Despite the loss, Kannapolis is 4-2 against Lakewood this season.