From staff reports
K.J. Sherrill (West Rowan) won’t be playing his final basketball season at Charlotte.
The 6-foot-7 Sherrill has been released by the 49ers and will transfer, likely to a Division II program where he would not be required to sit out a year.
Sherrill averaged 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds for the 49ers as a junior.
Sherrill ranks No. 4 on the all-time scoring list at West with 1,596 points. The only players who scored more were Scooter Sherrill, Donte Minter and Sherrill’s younger brother, Keshun, who finished his prep career this season.
Catawba’s Keon Moore, who averaged 21.4 points, has been named to the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association College Division All-State men’s basketball first team.
Pfeiffer’s Danny Smith made the second team.
Prep baseball
East Rowan’s baseball team tried desperately to play its weather-plagued home game against West Rowan on Thursday night but without success.
After a rain delay of 65 minutes, during which the Mustangs exhausted 22 bags of Turface quick-dry solution, the “Play Ball” cry went up at 8:05 p.m. from P.A. man Jeff Vail. Action lasted only a handful of minutes.
East pitcher Bradley Robbins faced three batters in the top of the first, striking out Bryce Burns and walking Hunter Teeter and Justin Evans.
Robbins was struggling with soggy baseballs that were sticking to his fingers, and a wild pitch advanced the West runners to second and third with one out.
At that point, umpires stepped in and halted the action. After a brief delay, the battle for first place in the NPC was suspended. It will be resumed tonight — hopefully — at 7 p.m.
East has four games scheduled next week (Tuesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday). Staton Field also is the host for a jayvee tournament this weekend. That’s why the Mustangs did everything humanly possible to play last night.
Salisbury-Lexington was postponed until April 19.
Salisbury will play in the National Hall of Fame Tournament in Orlando over the Easter break.
Carson-Statesville also was postponed.
Jayvee baseball
East Rowan’s jayvees beat West Rowan 9-0 at Staton Field on Thursday. It was the first loss of the season for the Falcons.
Joseph Peeler pitched a two-hitter for East (9-4, 7-2 NPC). Dustin Ritchie and Scott Sapp had two hits apiece.
Matt Miller, the former East and Rowan Legion catcher, coaches the Mustangs.
Prep softball
West Rowan’s softball team stayed on a roll with a 5-0 NPC win against East Rowan on Thursday afternoon. Jessica Snider pitched a three-hitter for the Falcons, who have won three straight against county rivals.
West (5-8, 5-4) jumped out early with big hits by Catherine Whitley, Sarah Perrine, Taylor Riley, Spencer Nance and Marissa Yow.
West then kept the Mustangs off the scoreboard with great defense that included key catches by center fielder Diamond Suber.
East fell to 6-3 in the NPC and 7-6 overall.
South Rowan trailed North Iredell 6-0 in the third inning when action was halted on Thursday. South had been out-hit 8-0 and had made four errors.
Prep golf
Thursday’s qualifying round at the Palmetto High School Golf Championship was canceled due to storms. Salisbury golfers will be involved in qualifying today, and the tournament has been reduced to 18 holes on Saturday.
Legion baseball
A story in Thursday’s edition stated Kannapolis Post 115 “expects to have Weston Smith, a Northwest Cabarrus pitcher who has shined for South Rowan the past two summers, back in the fold.” Please note that Smith, who has a choice of teams, has not yet made a decision as to which program he’ll play for.
College baseball
Catawba starts its huge SAC series at Tusculum tonight at 6 p.m. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday.
Both teams are 19-2 in the league and nationally ranked.
Tusculum is 32-5, while Catawba is 30-8.
The weekend will feature the two most successful baseball coaches in SAC history in Tusculum’s Doug Jones and Catawba’s Jim Gantt.
Pro baseball
The Minnesota Twins released southpaw Spencer Steedley (East Rowan) near the end of Spring Training.
Steedley, 26, was drafted in the 25th round by the Twins in 2007 after being all-conference as both a pitcher and hitter for the Charlotte 49ers. He had been in the Twins’ farm system since signing.
Steedley is 19-19 with a 3.39 ERA in the minors, while working mostly out of the bullpen. He owns 16 career saves and was named to league all-star teams in 2008 and 2009.
At least four local pros will open the season in the high Class A Carolina League. That league is scheduled to start play on Friday.
Wade Moore (West Rowan, Catawba) is with the Potomac Nationals (Washington). Moore’s teammates include third baseman Anthony Rendon, arguably the top college hitter in last summer’s draft.
Daniel Wagner (South Rowan) is back with the Winston-Salem Dash (Chicago White Sox). He had a two-run single in an exhibition game against the Kannapolis Intimidators on Tuesday.
Whit Merrifield (Davie) is with the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Kansas City).
Ryan Query (A.L. Brown, Catawba) is with the Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta).
Jerry Sands (Catawba) had two RBIs for Albuquerque in an 8-4 loss to Omaha on Thursday.
Local golf
Salisbury native Tripp Isenhour is working as analyst for the Golf Channel.
Isenhour joined the Golf Channel in January after competing on the Nationwide and PGA tours for a dozen seasons.
Isenhour, an All-American at Georgia Tech, won four times on the Nationwide Tour.
Eighty-nine GARS members played a Texas Scramble at Crescent earlier this week.
The team of Jay Boyce, Dale Cobb, Les Loman and Johnny Shook shot minus-7 and won on a tiebreaker with the team of Bobby Clark, Carrol Downey, Clive Mahaffey and Winsten Mahaffey.
The team of Lloyd Clodfelter, Gordon Correll, Paul Dombrowski and David Lee shot minus-4 for third place.
Middle schools
Boys soccer
Knox’s boys beat West Rowan Middle 4-3, with Arturo Ramirez getting a hat track.
Santiago Caballero also scored for the Trojans. Josh Lynch had two assists, while Caballero had one.
Matt Woolly made five saves.
Intimidators baseball
The Kannapolis Intimidators were rained out on opening night Thursday and have rescheduled that game as part of a doubleheader (two seven-inning games) on Saturday, with a 6:05 p.m. start.
The teams are scheduled to play tonight at 7:05 p.m. The first 1,000 fans will receive a stadium replica. Call (704)-932-3267.
ASU baseball camp
Appalachian State’s Mountaineer Skills Academy sessions are set for June 18-22 (ages 6-14) and July 22-25 (ages 10-18).
Enrollment is limited to assure personal attention.
The camper to staff ratio is maintained at 8 to 1.
Drills, videotape review, lecture, and simulated and live game situations will be utilized to help enhance the camper’s learning experience, and academic performance is stressed.
Each camper will receive a written evaluation and camp T-shirt. Meals are provided on the ASU campus.
• Appalachian State also will hold one-day sessions for pitchers/catchers and for hitters on Aug. 4 for ages 6-17. Head coach Chris Pollard will be joined by the ASU coaching staff and members of the Major League Scouting Bureau for this intensive academy.
For information, go to www.camps.appstate.edu.