Staff report

HIGH POINT — South Rowan’s Junior Legion baseball team scored nine runs in the top of the first inning and romped to a 17-0 victory against West Carteret (Morehead City) in a state tournament pool play game on Sunday afternoon at Wesleyan Christian Academy.

South went 2-1 in pool play, losing in extra innings to R-S Central on Friday, but pounding the Ahoskie Braves on Saturday night before rolling against West Carteret.

R-S Central also went 2-1, but beat South head-to-head to take the No. 1 seed from the pool.

South takes on the powerful North Davidson/Oak Grove squad that went undefeated in pool play in a semifinal on Monday at 4 p.m. at Finch Field in Thomasville. The other semifinal game will pit R-S Central against the host Post 87 Jr. Hi-Toms, who went 2-1 in pool play.

The three Area III teams made the Final Four. The championship will be decided on Tuesday at Finch Field.

South (24-5) used four pitchers and got a combined shutout from Jackson Deal, Chandler Oddie, Colton Fisher and Devin Arnette. They allowed five hits.

South got huge offensive games from Patrick Holden, who went 4-for-4 with five RBIs, and Kane Kepley, who had three hits and five RBIs. Deal scored three runs.

In that nine-run first inning, Drew Huffman had a run-scoring double, Jacob Ritchie had a two-run single, Deal and Kepley had RBI singles, and Holden had a two-run double.

Kepley’s RBI single made it 10-0. Holden’s two-run single made it 12-0.

Kepley had a bases-clearing double to boost South’s lead to 15-0. Holden tripled in a run for a 16-0 lead.  Haiden Leffew singled home the final run.