Staff report

Thursday’s roundup …

LANDIS — Central Cabarrus’ Garrison Bullock socked a three-run homer to put South Rowan in a tough spot, but the Raiders came back to win 7-6 and stayed undefeated.

Chandler Oddie, the South reliever who gave up the three-run homer, moved on from it and struck out Bullock swinging on a 1-and-2 pitch with the tying run at first base to end a tense South Piedmont Conference game.

Oddie recorded a 1-2-3 sixth and a hitless seventh as South (5-0, 2-0) finished a sweep of the Vikings.

Oddie became the fourth South pitcher to get credit for a win in the young season. Wake Forest commit Haiden Leffew, the ace who won on Tuesday, is 2-0. Finch McMillin and Carson Crainshaw, Thursday’s starting pitcher, are 1-0.

Leffew smacked a solo homer leading off the fourth, but mostly South scratched and clawed for runs with five singles, five walks, three HBPs, four steals and assorted errors, wild pitches and passed balls.

In the decisive bottom of the fifth, South scored on a passed ball to tie the game at 6-all and got what proved to be the winning run on a wild pitch.

Kane Kepley continued his sensational start to the season with three hits, two runs and two steals.

Jacob Ritchie had a hit to put South on top early.

Crainshaw pitched 4 2/3 innings and struck out four.

Bullock had two doubles, in addition to the three-run homer, to lead the Vikings. Raeder McIntrye had a triple.

South and Central flipped their game sites this week from the original schedule. The Raiders won 7-0 at Central on Tuesday.

East Rowan, West Rowan and Carson play SPC road games tonight and will try to keep pace with the Raiders.

 

SOFTBALL

TROUTMAN — West Rowan’s softball team crushed South Iredell 11-0 on Thursday in a non-conference game.

Freshman Riley Haggas hit a grand slam in the first inning and made life easy for West pitchers Arabelle Shulenberger and Carmen Freeze, who combined for eight strikeouts while holding the Vikings (3-4) to two hits.

Haggas had five RBIs.

EA Nance went 3-for-3, scored two and drove in two.

West (3-1) got two hits each from Brooke Kennerly, Emma Clarke and Madelyn VonCanon.

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KANNAPOLIS — A.L. Brown cruised 7-1 against Robinson in a non-conference game on Thursday.

The Wonders (5-1) were led by Kaylyn Belfield, who went 3-for-3 with three runs scored.

Lindsay Wolford drove in two runs.

Avery Bracewell struck out nine for the win.

•••

MOORESVILLE — Mooresville beat West Stanly 2-1 in a battle between two strong teams.

Brooke Piper hit a two-run homer in the sixth to lift the Blue Devils (5-1), while the Colts fell to 3-2.

Morgan Smith pitched six strong innings for the win. Campbell Schaen closed it in the seventh.