July 15, 2024 - AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL (UPDATED)

The 2024 North Carolina American Legion Baseball Championship Tournament begins Saturday in Cherryville with eight teams in a double-elimination format. The teams have been determined with Garner and Wayne County from Area 1, Wilmington and Hamlet from Area 2, High Point from Area 3 and Shelby, Union County and Cherryville from Area 4.

This year is Area 3's turn to host the championship but since none of the teams made an offer to do so, Cherryville put in a bid and was awarded the 2024 event. Because of that, Area 4 gets a third team in the tournament and the Area champion Post 87 Hi-Toms is the only representative from Area 3.

Post 87 will play in the second third game Saturday at 4:00 and Cherryville will play as the host team in the final game on opening day at 7:30.

Championships are scheduled for tonight in areas 1 and 2 which will determine Area Champions and set the seeding for the tournament. Wayne County will host Garner for the Area 1 title and Hamlet will host Wilmington in Area 2. Shelby defeated Union County for the Area 4 championship Sunday night.

Teams will report to Cherryville on Friday for orientation, a parade, dinner and a home run derby.

STATE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

July 12, 2024 – On The Ball

On The Ball can be heard Tuesday and Friday afternoons at 5:00 through the mixlr app or on the web at sportstone.net.

SPORTSTONE ON THE BALL

July 11, 2024 – SPECIAL FEATURES

Dennis Garcia spoke with American Legion baseball coaches Ronnie Pugh and Nate Cockman about the challenges each faced this summer for the latest SPECIAL FEATURE from SportsTone.

July 9, 2024 – On The Ball

The first edition of On The Ball ran from March until September, 2020 during the CoVID-19 shut-down and with four weeks remaining until SportsTone's next game coverage – the American Legion Southeast Regional – the talk show will return this afternoon at five o'clock.

The hour-long program will feature interviews with coaches and players along with news and information of interest to fans of local high school sports.

On The Ball can be heard Tuesday and Friday afternoons through the mixlr app or on the web at sportstone.net.

July 8, 2024 – SOFTBALL HONORS

The North Carolina Softball Coaches Association has named 15 Randolph County players to the All-District Team for District 5 and ten of those were also named to the All-State Team for the 2024 season.

The District 5 1A Player of the Year is Ziera Watson of Eastern Randolph High School and the District 5 1A Pitcher of the Year is Mollie Bulla of Uwharrie Charter Academy.

Joining Watson and Bulla on the All-District Team are Logann Beaver, Addie Flinchum and Ayanna Mears from ERHS and Kenzie Hill from UCA.

The All-District 5 Team for 2A softball includes Ruby Caudle, Devon Kelly, Callie Lambert and Gracie Smith from Providence Grove; Macie Crutchfield, Alyssa Harris and Madelyn Smith from Southwestern Randolph; and Maddie Nichols and Carmen Turgeon from Wheatmore.

In addition to the All-District recognition, Flinchum, Mears, Watson, Bulla and Hill were named to the 1A All-State Team and Kelly, Lambert, Smith, Crutchfield and Turgeon were honored as All-State performers in 2A softball.

District 5 includes schools in Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, Randolph, Rockingham and Stokes counties.

SPORTSTONE SOFTBALL