Pancake halves, wins in Curtis Cup and other sports news

NAIM, Scotland -- Chattanooga's Brooke Pancake and South Carolinian Austin Ernst got the United States team a point and a half Saturday in the Curtis Cup women's amateur golf competition, but Britain and Ireland closed to within 6 1/2-5 1/2 going into the closing eight singles matches today. Pancake, who recently hit the putt that gave Alabama the NCAA championship, hit the winning putt also on the 18th hole as she and 2011 individual NCAA champion Ernst, a former AJGA winner at WindStone, rallied to win a Friday foursomes match. They beat Holly Clyburn and Amy Boulden 2 up in a Saturday foursome and halved with Leona Maguire and Bronte Law in the four-ball play.

• Gator Fouche of Dalton, Ga., and Craig Jarrell of Manchester, Tenn., are among the 77 players entered in the sectional qualifier Monday at Mystery Valley Golf Club in Lithonia, Ga., for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. The field will play 36 holes for three spots and two alternate positions in the national event July 9-14 in Midway, Utah.

Baseball

• Former Cleveland State and Tennessee Tech pitcher Stephen Pryor got his first major league baseball win Friday night -- as part of the Seattle Mariners' six-pitcher no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the best record in baseball. Pryor (1-0) got a strikeout to end the seventh inning, and Seattle scored in its next at-bat. Pryor then walked two batters in the eighth before being replaced. Former Brave Kevin Millwood pitched the first six innings of the 1-0 win but left with a mild groin strain. Recent Chattanooga Lookout Nathan Eovaldi allowed five hits in his own scoreless six innings for the Dodgers. Ex-Lookout Dee Gordon of the Dodgers was called out at first on an extremely close play in the ninth.

Rowing

• OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- McCallie School's lighweight 4-plus boat had the best time Saturday in the semifinals of the USRowing Youth Nationals after winning wire to wire also in its Friday heat on Melton Lake. McCallie's Drew Hettenbach, Fletcher Sims, Ross Weiser, August Wherry and JT Wu won their semifinal by six seconds in 6:46.78, more than four seconds faster than Head of the Hooch champion Cincinnati Junior, which won the other heat. The grand final is scheduled for 12:38 p.m. today.

Tennis

• The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's women's tennis signees for 2012-13 have earned the Lady Mocs the No. 9 spot in TennisRecruiting.net's Top-25 Mid-Major rankings. That is the highest of any Southern Conference women's program; College of Charleston is No. 12 and Samford is No. 14. UTC signed four-star prospects Kelsey Coots from Huntsville and Kayla Jones of Memphis last fall and added another four-star recruit, Katie Polk of Woodstock, Ga., and three-star Alison Storie from Johnson City, Tenn., in the spring signing period. Coots is the No. 1-ranked player in Alabama and a two-time state champion, while Polk is No. 6 in Georgia and like Coots a top-100 player nationally. Jones and Storie are ranked third and fifth in Tennessee. Coach Jeff Clark's Lady Mocs lose four seniors from a team that went 16-6 overall and 6-4 in the conference this year.

Soccer

• Lee University recently signed the Gatorade Tennessee boys' soccer player of the year, Tim Baker from Knoxville Catholic, to join coach Paul Furey's Flames for the 2012 season. Baker had 29 goals and 16 assists as a 5-foot-8, 135-pound midfielder this season for the Irish, who went 15-2-3. He's a four-time all-state selection by the Tennessee High School Soccer Coaches Association and also has been honored throughout his 65-goal, 49-assist career by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association. "Tim was the fastest player on the ball that we played this year. His touch on the ball was better than anyone we saw," Knoxville Webb coach Seth Harbin said in a release. "To quote some of my players, 'He's incredible.'" Baker graduated with a 3.78 grade point average.

Swimming

• Miller Williams won Saturday's 4.5-mile swim in the Tennessee River in the seventh annual River Rat Race. Williams, 24, completed the course from Rivermont Park to Coolidge Park in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 49 seconds. Hallie McFadden, 40, was the female winner and sixth overall in 1:27:58. Jerry Smith, 46, was second in 1:21:00, and George News, Jason Howard and Tom Hancock also were under 1:24. Arden Pitman, 19, won the 1.2-mile race in 24:56; Mitchell Meek was the male winner in 26:02. The two races included more than 70 participants.

Softball

• Abby Daniels from Ooltewah High School was one of eight softball recruits announced late this past week by Berry College. In addition to batting .422 as a senior and making the Chattanooga area's Best of Preps third team, the 5-foot-8 catcher was designated an All-America Scholar-Athlete by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, was second academically in her class and was voted Most Likely to Succeed. Berry is a prestigious academic institution in NCAA Division III.

Staff Reports

Upcoming Events