Sewanee's Smith SAA coach of year

Friday, January 1, 1904

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Sewanee's Bubba Smith was voted men's basketball coach of the year in the new Southern Athletic Association after the Tigers improved to 17-9 this season and wound up 8-5 in SAA play. That was the most wins for a Sewanee men's team since the 1997-98 team went 20-6, and the Tigers' eight-game winning streak late in the season was the program's longest in the NCAA Division III era. The Tigers' Valentino Bryant was a second-team All-SAA selection and Tyler Brown and Brett Bouldin earned honorable mention. Kayla Sewell from Walker Valley High School received All-SAA women's honorable mention.

• Emmanuel College, ranked 17th in NAIA Division I, edged No. 2 Lee University 68-65 on Monday in Franklin Springs, Ga., leaving each team with a 16-2 Southern States Athletic Conference record and a share of the league regular-season championship. Lee's Flames (28-2) have the tiebreaker edge and will seeded first for the SSAC tournament. Only Will Barnes with 12 points and fellow Tennessee Tech transfer Chase Dunn with 10 scored in double figures for the normally high-scoring Flames; Steve Bennett had nine rebounds. Adrian Justice led Emmanuel (27-3) with 13 points, and Luke Miller hit a 3-point heave with 1.7 seconds remaining for the winning margin.

• Carson-Newman junior Ish Sanders from Cleveland High School is the South Atlantic Conference men's basketball player of the week after scoring 25 or more points in four consecutive games.

Baseball

• Middle Tennessee State's Hunter Adkins from Red Bank High School pitched eight innings and allowed only three hits with five strikeouts in a 2-1 win Saturday at Auburn, and Belmont University's Chase Brookshire from McCallie School allowed three hits and an unearned run in seven innings in a 2-1 loss at Georgia. He also struck out five batters.

• Dylan Massengill got a save in the first game with three strikeouts in his four outs and then pitched a seven-inning three-hitter as Tennessee Temple beat Johnson University 7-2 and 3-0 Monday in baseball games moved from the Knoxville school to Sequatchie County High School. Trey Hill and Caine Elliott had RBI singles in the shutout for Temple (4-7). Dustin Crumley, Nico McElrath and Chris Altman each was 2-for-3 with two RBIs in the first game, Crumley and McElrath homering, and Drew Phillip pitched the first 5 2/3 innings.

Softball

• After rainstorms knocked Chattanooga State out of playing its Friday and Saturday softball schedule in Panama City, Fla., the Lady Tigers got in three games Sunday and pulled out a 3-2, eight-inning win over Northwest Florida State between a 3-0 loss to Southern Union and a 6-4 loss to Gulf Coast State. Marina Wilkerson hit a tying two-run homer in the seventh inning of the win, and Shelby Robertson scored the winning run on a throwaway after Lacye Walker singled her to third. Haley Fagan was the winning pitcher, giving up only three hits and no earned runs. Emily Dagnan went 2-for-2 and Robertson tripled in the first defeat, when Walker had to quit pitching after being hit on the throwing hand while batting. Fagan pitched the last six innings against Gulf Coast and gave up only two hits and one earned run, and Robertson and Elyse Ferguson each was 3-for-4 while Courtney Clark went 2-for-3 and Walker went 2-for-4. Robertson, Clark and Walker had an RBI apiece. The Lady Tigers (7-5) are scheduled to begin TCCAA play with games today and Wednesday at Cleveland State, weather permitting. Their home-opening doubleheader is Saturday at 1 p.m.

• Bryan College bounced back from a 6-2 loss to Milligan to win 10-7 in the second game of their softball doubleheader Monday in Dayton. The Lady Lions (6-6) won on Christine Marino's home run in the bottom of the eighth inning; she previously had another hit and RBI. Courtney Combs homered for one of the Lady Lions' two runs in game one, and she was 1-for-1 again in game two, when Rachel Kirby was 3-for-3 and Taylor Yates, Katelyn Bowen and Kirstie Jennings each had two hits. Beka James and Yates scored two runs each.

• Carson-Newman won 11-2 and 8-0 in softball Monday at Limestone College, and freshman Kaitie Sims (8-0) from Baylor School and Chattanooga State transfer Cassie Lyons (6-2) got the pitching wins, Lyons with a six-inning four hitter. Ooltewah High School graduates Bri Shoemake and Sara Kelley had three- and two-run homers in the first game, when another Ooltewah grad, Jessica Morgan, tripled and singled and scored twice and Baylor's Braleigh Angel also scored two runs. Kelley was 2-for-3 with another homer and two runs in game two for the Lady Eagles (14-2).