Area Sports Briefs: Catawba hires softball coach

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 11, 2018

From staff reports

  Mandy Harris-Morgan has been hired as Catawba’s new head softball coach.

Harris-Morgan will be just the second coach to guide the softball fast pitch program (following Nan Whitley) and comes to Catawba after serving as head coach at the  University of West Georgia from 2011-2016.

At West Georgia, Harris-Morgan took a 14-40 squad in her first season in 2012 to a 33-23 mark by 2016. While with the Wolves, she worked with all aspects of the program, including managing the budget, recruiting, fund raising and community engagement.

“We are excited to have someone with Mandy’s credentials come to Catawba to lead our softball program,” Catawba AD Larry Leckonby said.

Harris-Morgan played shortstop at Francis Marion and batted .314 in her career. She was named the team’s top offensive player in 2000 and top defensive player in 1999.

Rowan Legion

Rowan County will play at home Thursday and Friday in its upcoming series with High Point and will play at Finch Field  on Saturday and, if needed, on Sunday.

It’s a best-of-five Area III semifinal series.  If a fifth game is needed, it will be played at Newman Park.

The games at Finch Field will have 6 p.m. starting times.

Little League softball

Rowan County won its fifth straight state championship in the 9-10 age group.

Rowan beat Boiling Spings, 5-0, on Tuesday in the championship game.

Players are: Madison Altieri,  Ella Doby, Andie Evans, Kennedi Fisher,  Taylor Hallman, Charlotte Jones, McKenzie Menius, Olivia Polson, Arabelle Shulenberger,  Maddie Thompson,  Kimberly Troublefield   and Campbell Withers. The manager is Chris Evans. Assistant coaches are TJ Polson and Bryan Ritchie.

East Diamond Sports

East Rowan Diamond  Sports teams won 7U, 8U and 10U baseball state championships and was runner-up in 6U.

Junior Legion

Mocksville beat East Rowan, 5-2, on Tuesday to sweep a best-of-three Area III semifinal series.

Corbin Durham pitched well for East for six innings.

“He pitched well, but we gave them four or five unearned runs,” East’s Brian Hightower said.

Mocksville has wrapped up a berth in the state tournament in Manteo.

East finished 18-13.

“Mocksville was older, bigger and better than we were,” Hightower said. “But I couldn’t be happier about our summer. We played 31 games and a lot of young guys got a lot of experience.”

•••

Concord rolled against Randolph Red, 10-0, on Tuesday to even that series at a game apiece. A decisive Game 3 will be played at Mount Pleasant High tonight, with a berth in the state tourney at stake.

Corbin Hills golf

On Tuesday, the Corbin Hills Women’s Golf Association had overall Low Gross and Low Net Winner, Low Net Winners in the flights and Low putts.

Overall Low Gross— Phyllis Durland

Overall Low Net — Mary Seaford

Low Net

1st Flight – Azalea Huneycutt;  2nd Flight – Cathy Fleming;  3rd Flight – Monica Green

Low putts    Susan Houston

GARs golf

Sixty-four GARS members played at Lexington Golf Club. Low ‘A’ Flight player was Winsten Mahaffey with a net of 65.84. Low ‘B’ Flight player with a net of 62.96 was Lynn Shook.

Low ‘C’ Flight player was John Cress with a net of 64.61.  Low ‘D’ Flight player was John Daniels with a net of 65.30

Low gross was  a 74 shot by Mahaffey and Larry Petrea. Low net was won by Shook.

Four members shot their age or better today: Mahaffey, 81, shot a 74; Ben Moore, 81, shot an 81; Ken Miller, 82, shot an 82; and Clayton Steele, 86, shot 84.