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Sanderson, the Cap Seven's top baseball seed, will be home tonight at Optimist Park to play Wilmington Hoggard in the quarterfinals of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A playoffs.Sanderson (18-5) has defeated Garner, 2-1; Richmond County, 3-2; and Jordan, 3-0, to reach the showdown with Hoggard (21-4).Leesville Road (17-8 and the No. 3 team from the Cap Seven) plays Greenville Rose at Greenville's Guy Smith Stadium tonight at 7 in another quarterfinal.SOFTBALL: The Tri-Eight conference's Middle Creek, Fuquay-Varina and Apex claimed three of the final eight spots in the NCHSAA 4-A East softball playoffs.Middle Creek, the No. 1 seed from the Tri-Eight, is at home against Wilmington Laney.Fuquay-Varina, the No. 2 seed from the league, travels to New Bern. Apex, No. 3, goes to West Johnston, the top seed from the Greater Neuse.Durham Riverside, the Piedmont Athletic 4-A champion, travels to Scotland County in the other 4-A East third-round game.DUAL-TEAM TENNIS: The NCHSAA dual-team tennis playoffs race toward Saturday's championships this week with most quarterfinals today and semifinals Thursday.In dual-team tennis, individual results count toward the team score. The winning team, not the winning individuals, advances.Broughton plays at Green Hope and Millbrook plays at East Chapel Hill in 4-A East semifinals.SOCCER: The Broughton and Leesville Road girls soccer teams will meet for the fourth time this year Wednesday, and the odds are the final score will be 1-0.Leesville Road won two of the three previous meetings this season 1-0. Broughton won the other, also 1-0.The winner advances to the NCHSAA 4-A finals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at N.C. State's Paul Derr Field.Cardinal Gibbons plays at Kill Devil Hills First Flight at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the 2-A Eastern final.The 1-A, 2-A and 3-A finals are Saturday at N.C. State at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., but the times will not be assigned to specific games until the finalists are determined.TOC THIS WEEKEND: The 15th annual Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions will return to the area this weekend.Gibbons, a nationally prominent men's basketball recruiting analyst, has assembled a field that includes many of the nation's top prospects, including 6-foot-9 Derrick Favors, Gibbons' top-ranked junior.Favors will be playing with the Atlanta Celtics in the under-17 division.There are 64 teams in the U-17 and 32 teams each in the U-16 and U-15 divisions.Raleigh Word of God guard Jonathan Wall, who is the No. 1 player on the rivals.com list, is playing with D1 Sports in the tournament.Word of God teammate C.J. Leslie, who is committed to N.C. State, is playing with the Worldwide Renegades from Atlanta.Duke recruit Mason Plumlee of Asheville Christ School is playing with the Indy Elite, and North Carolina recruit Reggie Bullock of Kinston is with the CP3.Games will be played at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, N.C. State, Chapel Hill High, East Chapel Hill High, Carrboro High, Cardinal Gibbons and Cary Academy.Pool play begins Friday and continues Saturday. The playoffs start Saturday night and conclude Monday.Pairings are expected to be on the tournament Web site later this week.GREENBERG WINS TITLE: East Chapel Hill graduate Michael Greenberg, a sophomore at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, won the NCAA Division III tennis singles championship Sunday.Greenberg defeated Middlebury College senior Filip Marinkovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.Greenberg, the 2006 NCHSAA 4-A singles champion at East Chapel Hill, was 33-2 this spring.He upset top-seeded John Watts of Washington University in the semifinals 6-4, 6-4.DUTCH SHINES: Former Clayton track standout Johnny Dutch ran the fourth-fastest time in the world Sunday while finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles in the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.The South Carolina freshman was timed in 48.68 seconds, second-fastest in the U.S. this year, and set a school record.Dutch finished fourth in the 110 hurdles with a 13.63.Dutch is expected to compete in the U.S. Junior Nationals, the U.S. Nationals and the U.S. Olympic Trials later this summer.NO-HITTER: Former South Granville baseball pitcher Matt Harrison threw a no-hitter for the Frisco (Texas) RoughRiders on Sunday in a 2-0 win over the San Antonio Missions.The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Harrison struck out five and walked six for the Texas Rangers' Class AA team. Harrison is 3-1 with a 3.15 earned run average.
tim.stevens@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-8910
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