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Starmount softball has been a conference and state contender for multiple years under Courts. The 2010 team advanced to the state championship series at the 2A level, while her 2003 group advanced to the state championship series as a 1A school. Courts’ final team finished with a record of 18-6, finishing second in the Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference. The Rams beat Carver 25-0 in the opening round of the state playoffs before falling to West Stokes 9-3.

Starmount has not yet announced a replacement for Courts (whose married name is Heather Courts Tysinger).

“I know we will find someone good,” Courts said.

The Diamonds lost their first game on Friday to the Lady Royals, then defeated the Hoop City Elite and Piedmont Vipers on Saturday. On Sunday the Diamonds beat the Charlotte Lady Warriors by 1 point, hitting a 3-point shot with 15 seconds to go in the game. This put the team playing for third and fourth place against the Greensboro Gators.

The Diamonds lost this game placing them fourth in the state out of 11 teams. The team would like to thank all their sponsors, parents, friends, fans and other Diamonds teams’ fans for all the support.

The girls also honored each of their mothers with a rose on Sunday prior to their first game for Mother’s Day. The Wilkes Diamonds girls basketball club is directed by Bradley Stokes. The team is coached by Kevin Anderson, Steven Phillips and Sherry Wilcox.

Team members pictured are, from front row left to right: Jamilyn Wilcox, Hannah Shepherd, Karlie Anderson and Riley Johnson. Back row: Erica Wyatt, Anna Phillips, Madison German and Ashley Kennedy. Not pictured: Kavanna Held.

The Wilkes Diamonds pose after their tournament. Courtesy photo.

Some of the concepts to be taught include shooting, rebounding, ball handling, defense and offensive philosophy. The three-day individual camp provides instruction in various concepts that are employed at the high school level. These are the same concepts taught at the college and professional levels.

Each camper will receive a camp T-shirt. Campers also have opportunities to win other prizes.

For more information, contact Weisner at (336) 961-4644 or jeffrey.weisner@yadkin.k12.nc.us.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL CAMP BROCHURE.

The camp is designed to teach the fundamentals of the game of basketball. With the use of stations, each camper will receive individual instruction on the basic offensive and defensive fundamentals necessary to play basket-ball successfully.

In addition, each camper will be taught the offensive and defensive skills required to play two on two and three on three that provide the foundation of five on five play. At the end of camp each player will receive a personal evaluation.

It is our goal that each player will leave camp having been ex-posed to the proper skills and techniques to become a better basketball player. Registration will be held at the camp.

For more information, contact West Wilkes coach Allie Absher at (336) 973-4503 or abshera@wilkes.k12.nc.us.

The league is for players in middle school and high school. The cost is $60 for one player or $45 for more than one player per family.

All games will be played at the old Westfield Gym. Games will start in the middle of June and run through the end of July.

Sign-up today on Westfield Booster Club’s Facebook page.

Lunch will be available, for an additional cost, and it will consist of pizza and soft drinks or water. For more information, contact Mount Airy girls head coach Howard Mayo at 336-789-5147 ext 271 or 276-733-9080. Brochures are available at Mount Airy High School or on the web at http://www.teacherweb.com/NC/MountAiryHS/HowardMayo/

Team members are, from front row, left to right: Tate Samples, Braxton Church, Grayson Murray, Zach Mastin and Riley Ledford. Middle Row: Keaton Hincher, Jaden Wentz, Denver Stokes, Jonah Brooks, Aiken Minton and Jaxon Godbey. Back Row: Coaches Jack Ledford, Randy Brooks and Chris Mastin.

The Wilkes Wildfire 9U baseball team.

The football and cheerleading program is for rising first- and second-graders.

The early registration fee is $75 until June 1. For more information, contact Coach Travis Gammons at 789-5055 or gammonst@surry.k12.nc.us.

Weekend prep schedule

2A BASEBALL (Friday)
Randleman 12, Wilkes Central 2: Eagles’ stellar season ends at 25-4.

1A BASEBALL (Friday)
West Wilkes 8, East Montgomery 3: Blackhawks will travel to South Stanly in the next round.

2A SOFTBALL (Friday)
West Stokes 6, Piedmont 1: Wildcats will visit West Stanly in the next round.

1A SOFTBALL (Saturday)
West Wilkes 6, North Stokes 1: The Blackhawks will host South Stanly in the next round on Tuesday.

2A SOCCER (Saturday)
Cuthbertson 1, West Stokes 0: Wildcats’ season ends at 20-3-2.

Brianna Bratcher heads for third base in the first inning after slapping a ball deep into right field.

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Saturday is graduation day for the school, and standout seniors Brianna Bratcher and Emily Worley spent much of Friday afternoon going through rehearsals for the big event on the football field.

“They had practice down here from like 12:45 to five o’clock,” McHone said. “I was worried we would be in graduation mode.”

McHone’s worries, though, washed away after the first at-bat. Bratcher calmly stroked a triple into right field and later came home after a passed ball. The leadoff hit sparked the team to a 6-1 win over the visiting Panthers, pushing West Stokes into the fourth round of the 2A playoffs.

Bratcher and Worley – who bats second in the order — both earned two hits on the night and each had an RBI. Bratcher scored three runs. Worley, who plays second base, made an amazing over-the-shoulder catch of a fly ball in the second inning while retreating into the outfield. The Wildcats nearly turned a triple play during the sequence, catching one runner off base and almost nabbing another.

“They did good tonight. They are excited about our play right now,” McHone said of his senior leaders.

West Stokes (19-11) advances to face West Stanly (21-4) on the road in round four. The game most likely will be played Tuesday night. West Stanly edged long-time 2A power Central Davidson 3-2 on Friday evening. The Wildcats played Central Davidson early in the year, falling 2-0 in a pitcher’s duel but have not faced West Stanly this spring.

Morgan Manley, a sophomore, added two RBIs for West Stokes in Friday’s victory. Lauryn Smith, a junior, pitched a complete game, getting more comfortable as the innings wore on. Smith allowed only four hits and walked two batters en route to the win.

Piedmont got its first hitter of the game, Hayleigh Gimber, on base and moved her into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. But the next two hitters grounded out.

Piedmont’s defense played Bratcher to slap-bunt on her first at-bat. Bratcher did slap the ball – all the way deep into right field, allowing the Surry Community College softball signee to make it safely to third. With one out, Bratcher scooted home on a passed ball.

Manley later doubled to the centerfield/left-field gap to score teammate Ashley Cunningham, in the game as a courtesy runner for catcher Lacey Grubbs. The play made it 2-0.

Worley’s memorable catch highlighted the top of the second inning. An error allowed Piedmont’s Kaycee Steegal to reach, then Smith walked shortstop Micaela Hayes.

Lorna Duncan popped a ball into shallow centerfield, but Worley tracked it down. She made the catch with her back to home plate, and both Piedmont runners – thinking the ball was going to fall in – took off.

Worley gunned a throw to shortstop Samantha Seaman for the out at second. The throw to first was just a tad late for completing a triple play.

Lauryn Smith earned the complete-game win for West Stokes.

“Defense played a big part tonight,” McHone said.

For awhile, it looked like Smith was laboring in the pitcher’s circle. She gave up a run-scoring hit later in the second inning and faced several long at-bats where hitters repeatedly fouled off balls to stay alive.

By the top of the fourth, Smith was humming along like a machine. Only two balls left the infield in the final three innings. Smith needed just a handful of pitches to retire three batters in the fifth frame and only used four total to get three batters out in the seventh.

“With any pitcher, you have to kind of get your rhythm going,” McHone said. “Very few fastpitch pitchers come out here and start right off the bat with everything working. She works her way into it … She’s got a really, really good screwball. And she had it tonight and it was working good.”

The West Stokes lead grew to 4-1 in the bottom of the third inning. Bratcher walked to lead off, then Worley got aboard behind her with a nice bunt. Piedmont threw the ball away trying to get her at first.

Brea Lawson, one of the heroes of Wednesday’s win against Starmount, hit a sacrifice fly to score Bratcher. Manley later batted in Worley on a fielder’s choice.

Good things seemed to happen when the top of the order cycled back around for West Stokes. Bratcher hit a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth inning to drive home Seaman. Worley followed with a sharp double into left field to score Bratcher, making it a 6-1 game.

“I am so thankful that Bri started to get hot here right at the end,” McHone said. “She had been kind of struggling a little bit the first of the season. She was a little upset with herself but she is just on fire right now.”

Piedmont’s strong infield kept West Stokes from enjoying an even bigger victory margin. Third baseman Sarah Tucker made several great plays on ground balls. Second baseman Gimber came up with a couple of dramatic catches of fly balls.

West Stokes has now won eight of its last nine games. The loss came at North Stokes in the conference tournament championship on May 4.

West Stanly will be a “bear” of an opponent, McHone said. Any time you beat Central Davidson in softball, that is an eye-opener. West Stanly plays in the same conference as Piedmont, beating the Panthers twice in the regular season but falling to them in the conference tournament semifinals.

Wildcat players continue to dream big — of reaching the new best-of-three 2A West Regional series and then making it to Raleigh for the state championship, McHone said.

“They think right now they can win anything they get on the field to play,” the coach said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s here or there … We’re going to give somebody a game. Win or lose, they are going to know we were there.”

West Stokes 6, Piedmont 1
2A Softball Playoffs * Round 3 * at King

Piedmont 010 000 0 — 1
West Stokes 202 200 x — 6

WP: Lauryn Smith; LP: Kaycee Stegall
LOB–PIEDMONT PANTHERS 5, WEST STOKES WILDCATS 6.
ERR–Danielle Del Bene, Micaela Hayes, Sarah James, Morgan Manley. 2B–Kaycee Stegall, Morgan Manley, Emily Worley.
3B–Brianna Bratcher. SACF–Brea Lawson. SACB–Kaylin Kisiah, Emily Worley, Lauryn Smith. SB–Emily Worley, Samantha Seaman.

Emily Worley initiated a double play with this catch in shallow centerfield. The play nearly resulted in a 4-6-3 triple play but one Piedmont runner made it back to base safely.

Basic fundamentals and skills of baseball will be taught — throwing, pitching, hitting, fielding and base-running. There will be daily competitions for East Wilkes baseball prizes.

Each camper will receive a camp T-shirt and will enjoy a pizza party on the last day of camp. The registration cost is $35 (before June 4) or $45 on the first day of camp.

Please make checks payable to East Wilkes High School and mail to East High to the attention of coach Jeremy Helton. The camp staff will consist of current coaches and players, as well as former players.