The annual Sandhills Senior Showcase high school baseball all-star game was held recently at J.P. Riddle Stadium and hosted by the Fayetteville SwampDogs.

This year’s game featured a mix of some of the top graduating senior baseball players from Cumberland and Robeson counties. The South River EMC team beat the Lumbee River team 4-2, but the game’s biggest winner was Anthony Lane from Terry Sanford High School.

Lane, who has already committed to play at Furman University next season, was named the winner of the annual Ranger Barrett Memorial Scholarship of $1,000 as the game’s most valuable player.

Lane was an All-Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference first team selection this season as he helped lead the Bulldogs to the regular-season championship. He batted .338 and drove in 16 runs.

•  East Carolina likely lost a top prospect for next year’s baseball team when Whiteville’s MacKenzie Gore was the third player taken in the recent Major League Baseball draft.

At press time for this week’s edition of Up & Coming Weekly, Gore had not signed a professional contract but was expected to.

•  The Hope Mills Boosters American Legion baseball team is off to another strong start this season. Through Tuesday, June 13, the team was 6-0, after taking a week off so the high school seniors on the squad could take part in graduation exercises.

Congratulations to Hope Mills coach Mark Kahlenberg who also took a week off from coaching and games to celebrate the birth of his second child, Reid, a boy.

Both the baby and mother, Deana Kahlenberg, as well as older brother Camden, are doing fine.

•  The Hope Mills Boosters got some big news about their schedule last week. They have been added to the field of one of the biggest regular-season American Legion baseball tournaments, the Palmetto Legion Invitational in Florence, S.C.

This year’s tournament includes both of last year’s American Legion national finalists, Rowan County from North Carolina and champion Texarkana, Arkansas. Games will be scheduled Thursday through Sunday. The schedule is being updated as Hope Mills is a late replacement for Tallahassee, Florida. Follow @EarlVaughanJr on Twitter or Earl M Vaughan Jr. on Facebook for current schedule information on the tournament.

Photo: Anthony Lane