From staff reports

Salisbury tennis players won Central Carolina Conference championships on Wednesday.

Colin Donaldson and Gray Davis defeated teammates Reid Hlavacek and Kevin Williams 6-2, 6-2 to win the 2A doubles championship.

Will Koontz defeated Bain Bennett (West Davidson) 6-2, 6-2 for the singles title.

Those five Hornets will move on to next week’s 2A Midwest Regional that will be hosted by Salisbury.

HS golf

East Rowan sophomore Landon Merrell shot 75 at the Country Club of Salisbury on Tuesday to win his second straight individual county title.

The key for Merrell was a dymamic drive and a 250-yard 3-wood to the green on No. 13, the course’s longest hole. He two-putted for his only birdie. He made one bogey, two doubles and  14 pars.

West Rowan shot 329 to top Salisbury by 11 shots for the team title.

McGwire Owen’s 77 led the Falcons. Gage Ludwick shot 81, Justin Cole shot 83, and Tyler Kepley shot 88.

See the story online.

HS baseball

In key South Piedmont Conference matchups on Tuesday, East Rowan used another strong pitching performance by Cameron Padgett (8-0) and a three-run homer by Cobb Hightower to beat West Rowan ace Casey Gouge 10-3.

East moved two games ahead of West in the standings and stayed tied with South Rowan for first.

South built a 9-0  lead and pounded Carson 10-5 with JD James providing a homer and Haiden Leffew (6-1) logging another win on the mound. South beat Carson ace Hayden Simmerson.

Carson plays at South on Friday, while West hosts East.

There’s a big finishing week ahead with East taking on a strong Northwest Cabarrus team twice, and South playing two with West.

•••

In a Wednesday SPC game, Northwest Cabarrus (13-5, 7-4) rode six shutout innings by Terry Kaler and three RBIs by Jacob Allen to a 5-0 win against Central Cabarrus.

•••

Chance Mako hit a walk-off homer to give East Rowan a 4-3 win against Lake Norman on Wednesday.

Aiden Schenck and winner Morgan Padgett got the job done on the mound.

Mako, Griffin Warden and Nate Hayworth had two hits.

  

College football

Freshman Jalon Walker (Salisbury) saw plenty of action and made several plays in Georgia’s Red-Black Spring Game on Saturday.

Minor leagues

Colton Laws (Carson) has pitched only 2 2/3 innings in relief for Vancouver, but has picked up two wins.

•••

Besides hitting three early homers for Columbus, Ike Freeman (East Rowan) is showing the ability to get on base with nine walks  in eight games. His batting average is .211, but his OBP is .464.