From staff and wire reports

UNC Greensboro’s Nick Lyerly, who starred at East Rowan, shot 4-under 68 in the first round of the 58th N.C. Amateur golf tournament being held at River Landing in Wallace.

Lyerly had four birdies and a bogey on the front nine. On the back, he made an eagle on a par-5 and made one bogey for 33-35 — 68.

Lyerly is four shots off the sizzling pace set  by Harrison Rhoades, who fired a 64.

Michael Childress, a local golfer who graduated from Cannon School and is headed to the University of Richmond, shot 1-over 73 and is tied for 30th.

Logan Shuping, a former East Rowan standout who is now at East Carolina, shot 78.

The second of four rounds will be played today.

 

West hoops camp

Coach Mike Gurley’s famed West Rowan basketball camp will be held on June 18-20 and July 9-11.

The camp is from 9-1 daily. The cost is $60 and includes free lunch.

Guest speakers will include KP Parks, Catawba head coach Rob Perron and Antwaun Thompson.

Call Coach Gurley at 704-798-2074.

 

Minor leagues

Former Catawba closer Bryan Blanton, 22, is headed to join the Pulaski Yankees in the Virginia mountains, a short-season team in the Appalachian League. Their season starts June 19 at Danville, Va.

Blanton was picked by the Yankees on the 21st round in 2017 and had a strong debut, going 5-for-5 in save opportunities with a rookie league team.

He’s been in extended Spring Training.

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Former Catawba slugger Willl Albertson will be catching for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in the short-season Northwest League.

Albertson, who will turn 24 in a couple of weeks, was a 21st-round pick by the San Francisco Giants in 2016. The Volcanoes start playing tonight.

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Another former Catawba slugger, Jerry Sands, has gotten hot in Double A ball  in recent weeks and is batting .236 with 10 homers and 32 RBIs. He’s also in the Giants organization. Sands owns a nine-game hitting streak.

 

College wood bat leagues

Lee Poteat (West Rowan, Catawba) broke out of a mini-slump with a run-scoring single on Thursday for the Springfield Sliders of the Prospect League. Poteat is batting .327 with two homers and 14 RBIs.

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Jackson Raper (Catawba) is batting .345 for the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks of the Futures League.

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Cameron Morrison (Catawba) is batting .391 with 12 RBIs  for the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League.

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Jacob Nester (Catawba) is 8-for-24 for the Wilson Tobs of the Coastal Plain League.

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Joe Butts (Catawba) is playing for the Kernersville Bulldogs in the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League. He has five RBIs in 11 games.

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Matt Honeycutt (South Rowan, Mars Hill) is playing for the Florence Red Wolves of the Coastal Plain League and is off to a 6-for-17 start (.353).

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Hunter Shepherd (Catawba) is playing for the Morehead City Marlins of the Coastal Plain League and has pitched in five games. He’s also hit a home run.

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A host of local players are competing in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League. Among those who have seen action are Brandon Walton (West Rowan, Mars Hill) of the Concord Athletics; Henderson Lentz (North Rowan, Catawba), Ryan Jones (Salisbury, Belmont Abbey) and Pearce Wilhelm (West Rowan, Catawba) of the Lake Norman Copperheads, and Brandon White (North Rowan, Belmont Abbey) and Joe Harrison (North Rowan, Belmont Abbey) of the Mooresville Spinners.

 

Legion softball

Rowan County  held on to win at Kannapolis, 6-5, on Thursday in American Legion softball.

Rowan  (3-0) took a 6-2 lead in the third inning.

The second game of the doubleheader was not played due to weather.

Rowan plays at Concord next Tuesday and plays at Davidson County next Thursday.

Games start at 7 p.m. The format is a doubleheader with two five-inning games.

  •••

Concord split with Davidson County on Thursday. Davidson won 4-3, but Concord took the nightcap, 9-0.

Montgomery County swept Stanly County on Thursday, 2-1 and 10-9.

  

Local golf

Richard Carty recently scored a hole-in-one at The Revival at the Crescent.

Carty used a 9-iron on the 129-yard No. 5 hole. The feat was witnessed by Levoy Helms and Homer Brooks.

Junior Legion

West Rowan beat Kannapolis Post 115, 4-3, in 10 innings on Thursday.

Steven Smith’s bunt scored Andrew Kennerly with the winning run.

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Carson stayed undefeated (12-0, 2-0) with a 6-4 win against South Rowan on Thursday.

Dylan Driver was the winning pitcher. Aaron Misenheimer got the save. Tyler Thompson pitched two innings.

Mason Heard had three hits, including two doubles, and two RBIs. Caden Hudson had two doubles.

Legion baseball

The three-day NC/SC Challenge starts at Newman Park today.

The first game is Garner vs. Rock Hill at 5 p.m.

Rowan County will play  Florence at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday

11 AM FLORENCE VS GARNER

1:30 PM FLORENCE VS RANDOLPH COUNTY

4 PM SUMTER VS GARNER

7:30 PM SUMTER VS ROWAN COUNTY

Sunday

NOON SUMTER VS RANDOLPH COUNTY

2:30 PM ROCK HILL VS  RANDOLPH COUNTY

5 PM ROCK HILL VS ROWAN COUNTY

Pfeiffer athletics

  Pfeiffer athletics  announced its 2017-18 athletes of the year  — men’s basketball star Josh Calhoun and softball standout Vada Blue Sherrill.

Intimidators

Zach Jarrett doubled and singled twice, driving home two runs as the Delmarva Shorebirds beat the Kannapolis Intimidators 8-4 in the second game of a doubleheader on Thursday.

Will Robertson doubled and singled twice for Delmarva.

Delmarva right-hander Matthias Dietz (6-1) picked up the win after allowing two runs on five hits over five innings.  •••

Cameron Bishop tossed a three-hit complete game and Ryan Ripken doubled and singled twice, as the Shorebirds topped the Intimidators 6-1 in the first game of the doubleheader.

  Tyler Frost homered for Kannapolis.