Area Sports Briefs: East Junior Legion wins series; Kannapolis takes 1-0 lead vs. Winston

Published 12:44 am Sunday, July 8, 2018

From staff reports

East Rowan’s Junior Legion team won its first-round playoff series on Saturday.

East won at Walkertown, 4-1, to take the best-of-three series, 2-1.

Cameron Padgett pitched a complete game for East.

East scored on a balk early and was in a 1-all tie going to the fifth. Padgett doubled to start the inning and scored on Griffin Warden’s triple. Warden scored on Corbin Durham’s groundout for a 3-1 lead.

East made it 4-1 on a squeeze bunt by Austin Fulk.

East advances to a best-of-three second-round series against Mocksville.

Mocksville eliminated Pfafftown on Saturday, 7-6.

Mocksville hosts East at 7 p.m. on Monday at Rich Park.

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Concord beat Cary, 12-3, on Saturday to sweep a first-round series, 2-0.

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Randolph County beat Kannapolis Post 115, 6-0, on Saturday to sweep that series, 2-0.

Legion baseball

Jason White set the tone  by leading off the botom of the first inning with a homer, and Kannapolis beat Winston-Salem, 8-3, on Saturday to take the first game of their second-round series.

The teams were postponed on Friday when the other three Area III  quarterfinal series got under way.

Ryan O’Kelly was the winning pitcher, allowing four hits in five innings.

“Ryan was the hero,” Kannapolis coach Joe Hubbard said. “He did a great job of throwing strikes and pitching to contact. Winston-Salem has aggressive hitter who can swing it.”

Jacob Tuttle threw two innings of relief and earned a save with some big outs when Kannapolis was only up, 4-3.

White went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. White, Tuttle, Austin Dayvault and Rohan Handa had doubles. Michael Harrell, Chase Orrock and Dayvault had two hits each. Kannapolis out-hit Post 55, 12-4.

Rusty Nicholson drove in two runs for Winston-Salem.

Game 2 is at Winston-Salem’s Mount Tabor High tonight.

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High Point came all the way back from a 6-0 deficit to beat Davidson County, 10-6, and evened that best-of-five series at a game apiece.

High Point scored five runs in the fifth and five more in the seventh at Holt-Moffitt Field.

Connor Smith and Dalton Ward knocked in three runs each for High Point. Smith homered.

Mark McLamb was the winning pitcher.

Jed Bryant and Holt Biesecker had three  RBIs each for Post 8. Bryant went 3-for-3.

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Randolph County Post 45 took a 2-0  series lead over Greensboro with a 3-0 road win on Saturday.

Trevor Marsh pitched into the seventh inning, and Travis Winslow relieved and got the last two outs to save the victory.

Game 3 is set for tonight at 7 p.m. at McCrary Park and Randolph will be looking to wrap up the best-of-five series.

Little League softball

Rowan County won against Jackson  County, 9-0, in its first game in the  state tournament in Sylva.

Andie Evans pitched the shutout.

Intimidators

KANNAPOLIS—  Craig Dedelow hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning, as the Kannapolis Intimidators beat the Lakewood BlueClaws 4-3 on Saturday.

East Diamond Sports

Tryouts for East Rowan 10U travel baseball baseball team are on July 18-19 at the East Rowan Diamond Sports Complex at 114 Link Road, Rockwell.

Players must live in Rowan or Cabarrus and can’t turn 11 before May 1, 2019. Contact JC Alexander at 7-4-223-8451 or ertravelball@gmail.com.