From staff reports

Austin Love  (West Rowan, UNC) was named  second team Freshman All-America by D1 Baseball.

A redshirt freshman, Love was 8-4 for the Tar Heels with a 3.18 ERA and 67 strikeouts.

Love is pitching this summer with the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Love, 20,  has made two relief appearances for the Firebirds and is 1-0 with three strikeouts.

Youth football

Knox products JyMikaah Wells and Anthony Dodd, rising freshmen at Salisbury High, played on the winning “Stripes” team in a national middle school all-star game in Canton, Ohio, on Saturday.

Wells scored a touchdown in a 28-7 win over the “Stars” team.

Davie coaches

Davie County stayed in-house to fill two important head-coaching positions.

Perry Long, a Davie assistant, has been elevated to  head wrestling coach.

He’ll follow recently retired legend Buddy Lowery, who built a powerhouse program in Mocksville.

• Davie’s new head softball coach is Morgan Wyatt, who played for Davie (Class of 2010) and at Western Carolina.

She’s been on the Davie staff as the head jayvee coach.

She replaces Dawn Singleton Lowery, who stepped down after five seasons as head coach.

MLB

Davie County graduate Whit Merrifield will be in the All-Star Game for the first time.

Merrifield, 30, will represent the Kansas City Royals at the All-Star Game to be played July 9 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. He was named as a reserve for the American League squad.

  Merrifield is tied for second in the league in hits with 104 and is batting .299 with 11 homers and 11 steals.

Junior Legion

West Rowan won at Mocksville 8-3 on Monday to clinch a playoff berth.

Calen Lawson, Zander Burton and Andrew Kennerly had key hits for West (15-10, 9-2).

Jake Poris was the winning pitcher. He went 6 2/3 innings.

Kennerly, Hunter Watts and Lane Adkins had two hits each.

•••

Concord beat Carson 7-3 on Monday.

Richard Prange had two hits for Carson.

JJ Devos had three hits for Concord.

•••

East Rowan won against Alexander Central 10-2 on Sunday.

Jacob Causey pitched four shutout innings for the win.

 Morgan Padgett had three hits and two RBIs.

East will be in the playoffs.

•••

 Kannapolis Post 115 swept a Sunday doubleheader with A.L. Brown and finished the season with a 15-9 record.

In a 7-5 victory, Michael Specht and Matt Oakley had  two RBIs each for Post 115.

Braden Sweatt and Isaiah Black had two hits for A.L. Brown.

In a 14-2 romp,  Korey Jones, Matt Oakley, Tyler Grady and Brandon Moore had big days at the plate for Post 115.

•••

South Rowan is headed to the playoffs and stayed hot with an 8-4 win against Concord on Sunday.

Luke Hiskey went 4-for-4 with three  RBIs.

Joseph James, Drew Huffman and Patrick Holden had two hits each. Jackson Deal pitched six strong innings.

Jacob Craver had three RBIs for Concord.

Legion baseball

In a wild Southern Division game played on Monday, Concord outscored Stanly County 15-10 at Ferebee Field.

Concord (11-10, 6-2) had a six-run third and a six-run seventh.

Stanly (17-6, 5-4) scored six runs in the sixth to cut a 9-1 deficit to 9-7.

Maven Parker homered for Concord. Brett Laws and Ray Beaver had three hits each.

Jack Foley had three hits for Stanly.

•••

Rowan County won’t be in action again until the Area III playoffs start on Friday.

Rowan’s opponent and the venue for that game have yet to be determined, as some Area III teams won’t finish until Wednesday.

•••

Dawson Davis pitched Randolph County to a 7-1 win against Eastern Randolph on Monday to clinch first place in the Northern Division of Area III.

Harris Jackson had three hits for Post 45, while Spencer Lanier had three RBIs.

•••

Davidson County moved into second place in the Northern Division by beating High Point 5-3 on Monday.

High Point had the bases loaded in the seventh when Davidson secured the final out.

Nathan Burton drove in three runs for Post 8 to back the piching of Jonathan Conway and Jake Brown.

•••

Kannapolis won 10-1 against Concord in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader on Sunday.

Aaron Oakley had four hits for Post 115. Zack Aigner had three hits.

Ryan O’Kelly pitched a complete game.

Minor leagues

Zac Almond (Catawba) hit his fourth homer of the season for Kane County on Monday in a 4-1 loss to Cedar Rapids.

•••

Pitcher Peyton Williams (Catawba) has been promoted to Danville, an advanced rookie team. In his first outing for Danville, he pitched three innings, struck out five and allowed one run.

Summer baseball

Catawba’s Henderson Lentz (North Rowan) and Lyle Pfingst, who are playing for the Triad Tribe this summer, will compete in the Old North State League’s all-star game.

Little League softball

The Rowan Little League 16U softball team routed King 17-0 and 13-0 to win the District 2 championship.

Rowan will be the host team for the senior division state tournament at Salisbury Community Park, starting July 6.

•••

The Rowan Little 12U softball team beat South Little League 25-1 on Saturday and  beat Level Cross 21-0  on Sunday in  District 2 play at Salisbury Community Park.

Rowan  will play in the  District 2 championship game tonight at home.

Youth track

Rowan Express athletes competed in the a Region 25  national qualifier held at UNC Charlotte.

The top eight in each event qualified for the Junior Olympics nationalchampionships in Greensboro on July 29-Aug. 3.

8U girls

Hamanii Wilder

Shot put — 11 feet, 4 inches (7th place)

Turbo javelin — 15-2

100 meters — 20.87 second

Bella Linton

Shot put ­ ­— 7-9

Turbo javelin— 22-5 (8th place)

100 meters — 21.56

8U boys

Bralin Ellis

Shot put — 24-10(1st place)

Turbo javelin— 49-4 (3rd place)

Braxton Ellis

Shot put — 12-2

Turbo javelin— 36-8 (8th place)

200 meters — 42.37

Levi McCombs

100 meters — 17.22

200 meters — 37.16

400 meters — 1:21.75

10U boys

Jacory Patterson

100 meters — 17.80

Shot put-— 16-7

Turbo javelin — 35-3

Boys 11

Brenden Ellis

80 meter hurdles — 18.88

Turbo javelin- — 74-5 (5th place)

Discus — 58-3 (4th place)

Girls 12

A’Nyra Mills

100 meters — 13.97

200 meters — 29.11

400 meters — 1:10.15

Boys12

Gsiah Patterson

80 meter hurdles — 15.23 (4th place)

100 meters —14.56

Discus— 51-4 (8th place)

Girls 13

Brittany Ellis

Shot put— 35-7 (1st place)

Discus— 86-0.5 (1st place)

Javelin — 77-3 (4th place)

Jamasia Jackson

Shot put — 28-4 (5th place)

Discus — 62-10 (5th place)

Girls 15-16 

Yasmine Bush

100 meters — 15.14

200 meters — 31.58

Javelin — 41-8

   

Pfeiffer athletics

 The NCAA Division III Membership Committee has granted a waiver request that will accelerate the NCAA transition process for Pfeiffer University, making the Falcon athletic program a full, NCAA Division III Championship-eligible member beginning in the 2020-21 academic year.  With this waiver, Pfeiffer will also become eligible for USA South Conference championships.

Local golf

Lauren Childress finished second in a TYGA  one-day golf tournament at Colonial Country Club. She shot 69 for nine holes.

•••

In McCanless Couples play on Sunday, first place went to  Dan & Debbie Ingleston and Linus &  Ann Holstein.

Taking second place was the team of  David & Azalee Huneycutt and Walt Kincaid Kincaid won longest putt.

SAC basketball

  Newberry head men’s basketball coach Dave Davis has resigned after nine seasons and will be an assistant coach at Winthrop.

Davis has had an incredible head-coaching career at  Warren Wilson, Barton, Pfeiffer, and Newberry. and owns 486 career wins.

He was 143-113 at Newberry, with some of the best seasons in school history.

West basketball camp

Mike Gurley’s Falcon Basketball Camp will be held on July 8-11 from 9 until noon daily. Cost is $60 for top flight instruction and fun.

The camp is for players who will be in grades 2-9.

Call Coach Gurley at 704-798-2074 to register or to get more information.

East fundraiser

A golf tournament fundraiser for East Rowan boys and girls golf will be held at McCanless at 8 a.m. on July 27.

Contact coach Rhett Teems or send a message  to him @erhsathletics.