Area Sports Briefs: Salisbury soccer at home at 6 for huge matchup

Published 1:56 am Tuesday, May 22, 2018

From staff reports

For the Salisbury girls soccer team, this will be the biggest game in program history.

The top-seeded Hornets (25-0) play at home again tonight at 6 p.m.  in the West Region final. The opponent, No. 2 seed Lake Norman Charter (21-0-1), also is undefeated.

The winner of tonight’s matchup moves on to the 2A title game in Raleigh on Saturday against the First Flight-Carrboro winner. Top-seeded Dixon was knocked out of the East playoffs by Carrboro.

Salisbury has been a dominant team, outscoring opponents this season, 123-12. SHS coach Matt Parrish has taken boys teams to state titles in 2011, 2013 and 2015, but the girls had never gotten past the third round until this season.

Salisbury stunned Lake Norman Charter, 2-1, in a  memorable second-round playoff game in 2014 but lost to Forbush in Round 3.

LNC was 1A state champion in 2013 before moving up to 2A.

The only blemish on Lake Norman Charter’s record this season isn’t exactly a blemish. LNC tied 3A powerhouse Cox Mill (Cox Mill has reached the 3A West final) back on March 7.

LNC freshman goalkeeper Kaela Rasenberger has allowed only seven goals all season while recording 15 shutouts.

LNC’s offense is powered by sophomore Ayden Yates who has 44 goals and 25 assists. LNC has scored 125 goals.

Admission tonight at Ludwig Stadium is $7.

College baseball

Pool play in the ACC tournament starts today in Durham. See Scoreboard for the pairings and seeds.

Top MLB draft prospects in the tournament include Clemson first baseman/outfielder Seth Beer and Georgia Tech catcher Joey Bart. Bart led the league with a .368 batting average and hit 16 home runs — three fewer than Beer’s league-leading total.

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Columbus State beat Belmont Abbey twice on Monday to win the Southeast Regional and a berth in the D-II World Series.

Legion baseball

Concord beat Kannapolis, 7-2, on Monday at Northwest Cabarrus.

Nolan Devos struck out nine for Concord. Noah Love and Connor McGee had two hits each.

Local golf

Michael Childress and Lansdon Robbins fell in the Round of 32 in match play on Monday in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. They lost 3 and 2.

Prep track

In the 3A State Championships, Carson wheelchair athlete William Fuller took  second in the 100 and third in the shot put.

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Boys team state champions were Polk County (1A),  Forest Hills (2A), Weddington (3A) and Green Hope (4A). Girls team state champions were  Panther Creek (4A),  Hillside (3A), Lake Norman Charter (2A) and  Murphy (1A).

Prep tennis

Dual team state champs were Raleigh Charter (1A), Carrboro (2A), Clayton (3A) and Enloe (4A).

Carrboro topped Brevard, 5-2, in the 2A final.

Minors

   GREENSBORO —  Jhonny Santos homered twice and had three hits as the Greensboro Grasshoppers beat the Kannapolis Intimidators 5-3 on Monday.

Michael Mertz got Luis Gonzalez to fly out with a runner on first to end the game for his second save of the season.

Down 1-0 in the third, Kannapolis went out in front when Craig Dedelow hit a two-run home run.

The Grasshoppers took the lead for good with three runs in the fourth inning. Santos hit a two-run home run en route to the two-run lead.

The Grasshoppers tacked on another run in the fifth when Cameron Baranek hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Thomas Jones.

Nestor Bautista (1-0) got the win in relief while Kannapolis starter Lincoln Henzman (3-3) took the loss in the South Atlantic League game.