Staff report

The good news is Rowan C0unty’s American Legion baseball team has qualified for the state tournament.

The bad news is local fans won’t get to see or listen to a best-of-five Area III semifinal series that was expected to be exciting.

That series had been scheduled to start Saturday night at Newman Park, but Eastern Randolph, which was 17-10 and playing well, has forfeited the series to Rowan.

Rowan coaches said the reason given late Friday was “not enough players.”

Eastern Randolph pounded Stanly County in a doubleheader in Ramseur that ended very late on Thursday, winning 13-4 and 13-3  to take that quarterfinal series two games to one.

Rowan wrapped up its quarterfinal series on Wednesday, finishing off a sweep of Mocksville.

Now the only Area III semifinal games that will be contested on the field will be in the Kannapolis-Randolph County series.

Northern Division champion Randolph County is hosting the first two games of that series at McCrary Park. Kannapolis, runner-up in the Southern Division to Rowan County, will host Game 3 and Game 4, if needed, at Northwest Cabarrus High. If a fifth game is needed, it will be hosted by Randolph County.

Rowan County will play the winner of the Randolph-Kannapolis series on July 22 for the Area III championship.

That single game will determine the seeds for the state tournament that is scheduled to be played at Campbell University from July 26-30.