Bryan opens in baseball and Lee plays today

Friday, January 1, 1904

Area college baseball teams trying to get their seasons started have been hindered by a lot of rain lately, and the forecast for Saturday has led to adjustments in their opening dates.

NAIA power Lee University is hosting Talladega in two games today instead of just one, saving only the third game of the Flames' 2012 schedule for Saturday. And Bryan College moved up its start to Thursday against Toccoa Falls, playing the Eagles again in a doubleheader today that originally was set for Saturday.

Bryan won Thursday's game 14-2 as Billy Veal went 3-for-3 with five RBIs and one of the Lions' four homers. Tyler Latham was 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs, Doug Stroup homered, doubled and drove in three runs and Andrew Smith had a three-run homer in the first inning.

Kemonte Keesee was the winning pitcher for the Lions, who return Tanner Brown and Jason Ridenhour as top pitchers along with starting infielders Josh Harris, Latham and Veal, outfielders Shane Clawson and Kevin Layne and catchers Dewayne Boyd and Zach Vick.

Tennessee Temple was supposed to host Point University today and play at the Atlanta-area school Saturday, but the Red Bank High School field the Crusaders was going to use is too wet so the Crusaders are going to play two games at Point. And those might be delayed till Monday.

Chattanooga State and Georgia Perimeter considered moving their opening doubleheader Saturday at Covington, Ga., to today but decided to leave it as is.

"And now they're calling for 30 percent instead of 60, so who knows? Maybe we'll get it in," Chatt State coach Greg Dennis said Thursday.

His Tigers went 43-11 last year and lost in the state-region final to Columbia State.

Tripp White is their No. 1 starting pitcher at this point, and fellow returner Dylan Massengill is in the mix with freshmen Alex Ridge from Ridgeland, Colton Kinnamon from Dalton, Tyler McClure from Blue Ridge, Ga., and second-semester arrival Carson Bryant from Asheville, N.C., for the other rotation spots. Blake Davenport from LaFayette is another returner who redshirted last year.

The Tigers return Tyler Roach, a second-team All-TCCAA pick last year, at first base and Zach Zarzour at second to go with outstanding shortstop arrival Jordan McDonald from Australia. Ringgold High School shortstop Zach Lance is playing at third for his new level of Tigers, and Isaac Davenport from the 2010 team that went to the NJCAA World Series is back and playing center field with Walters State transfer Daniel Tucker in left and "two or three guys" vying for right-field duty.

"The weather hasn't been real conducive to see the guys on a regular basis, so we're going a lot on what we saw in the fall," Dennis said. "We'll pretty much use all of February for figuring things out. We've got good competition to get ready for conference play.

"We hope this team is very similar to previous teams in being pretty athletic and being able to put a lot of pressure on opponents both offensively and defensively."