Baseball Flames split with VSU
Luke Toms was 2-for-3 with a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored as Lee University won 8-2 Saturday in the first game of its Gulf South Conference baseball doubleheader against visiting Valdosta State, but VSU retaliated with a 10-3 win. M.J. Brown was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs and Nathan Wierzgac, Trenton Hill and Chris Adams each had two hits also in support of Dustin Lawson’s seven-hit pitching in the win for Lee’s Flames (25-16-1, 14-13-1). Hill had three RBIs and Adams was 2-for-3 with a run in game two, when Michael Gouge drove in four runs and Kevin Cruz was 3-for-4 with a homer for Valdosta (25-15, 16-11). The LeeVSU softball games were called off.
Covenant College lost 5-4 and 12-5 to visiting Huntingdon in USA South baseball Saturday. Scott Gillespie was 5-for-6 with a homer, two runs and two RBIs in the doubleheader for the Scots (14-20, 10-13), and Caleb Bloye had two hits and an RBI in each game. Will Carlton also had two hits in game one, and he contributed an RBI in the rematch, when Aaron Cooperman was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer.
Sewanee lost 3-2 and won 14-3 in Southern Athletic Association baseball Saturday at Centre. Tony Dykes had a two-run double and pitcher Ryan Tillman allowed only five hits in the loss for the Tigers. In the win, Jackson Cooper was 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored and Derek Hullings had three hits, three runs and an RBI.
Cleveland State lost 12-10 in TCCAA baseball Saturday at Dyersburg State, despite four hits apiece from Chris Caffrey and Connor Coakley and three hits and four RBIs from Wright Hackett. Caffrey tripled, doubled, scored two runs and batted in two, and Coakley and Anthony Hunt, who homered, each had two runs with one RBI. Also for the Cougars (20-19, 7-16), Blake Thomas was 3-for-3. Jackson Hollinshead homered, doubled and drove in three for Dyersburg (23-16, 9-12).
With last week’s Chattanooga Quarterback Club meeting called off so members could attend UTC’s basketball news conference, Lookouts president and general manager Rich Mozingo was rescheduled as the speaker for this Monday’s noon meeting at Finley Stadium. Attendance costs $10 with a meal, $4 without, and the public is invited. SOFTBALL
› Shaliyah Geathers from East Hamilton was 2-for-3 with a stolen base and a run scored as 12th-ranked Tennessee edged visiting Mississippi State 4-3 in their SEC softball series opener Friday night, and the Lady Vols (3411, 10-7) won again Saturday, 5-3, with Tory Lewis from GPS walking twice and registering an RBI and a run and Geathers getting a hit and a walk. Lexi Overstreet hit a two-run home run.
Shannon Plese was 4-for-5 with three RBIs in each game and a total of three runs scored as Chattanooga State completed a fourgame TCCAA softball sweep at Motlow with 10-5 and 8-0 wins Saturday. Courtney Crawford was 3-for-4 in each with a total of five RBIs and three runs, and Dana Horgan had four hits, three doubles and four runs for the day. McKenzi Ferguson allowed only two earned runs in the first game for the Lady Tigers (37-11, 24-4), and Ericka Webster and Morgan Boggess combined on a five-inning four-hitter in the finale, when Lindsey Stickrod was 3-for-4 with a homer, three RBIs and two runs and Sydney Sloan was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs. Chattanooga State’s Sharlene Godoy pitched a six-inning perfect game with 11 strikeouts in an 8-0 win Friday, followed by an 11-1 victory when Hanna Manley threw a six-hitter. Katy Richardson was 3-for-4 with an RBI and then tripled and scored twice in those two games, and Katie Scott was 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs in the first one with Stickrod and Courtney Styles each collecting three hits, three RBIs and two runs in the second — Stickrod with a homer and a double and Styles with two doubles.
With Raven Pope going 7-for-8 and batting in seven runs, Tennessee Temple won 8-4 and 4-1 in softball Saturday at Berea. Firstgame pitcher Megan Roysden allowed only two earned runs, and Carley Daniel followed with a six-hitter. Taylor Tsai was 2-for-2 and Jillian McGill had two hits and two RBIs in the first game for Temple (7-21), and Courtney Bonaiuto was 2-for-3 in game two.
Hayley Burnette from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in Carson-Newman’s 12-4 softball win Saturday at Queens that clinched the South Atlantic Conference outright regular-season championship for the Lady Eagles (35-11, 17-5). They lost game two of the doubleheader, 7-6, but freshman Kaitlin Pritchett from Heritage High in Ringgold was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs in a rare start. TRACK & FIELD
› Winthrop University freshman Preston Elwell from Signal Mountain was second in the javelin event at the UNC Charlotte Invitational meet Friday with a season-best throw of 190 feet, 10 inches.