Three former Chattanooga high school stars were on the 1972 Vanderbilt University baseball team being honored this Saturday before the Commodores' game against Auburn in Nashville. Mark Bode, a pitcher who graduated from McCallie in 1969, shortstop and 1971 Baylor alumnus Ted Shipley and outfielder and 1971 Central graduate Rick Duncan all plan to be at the team's 40-year reunion, Duncan reported from Cleveland, Ohio, where he is now a pastor. The 1972 team won the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division under coach Larry Schmittou and laid the foundation for 1973 and '74 overall SEC champions that also included Shipley and Duncan as All-SEC players. Bode was still around for the '73 title run, and Duncan was All-SEC again in '75. Shipley was a first-round draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in 1974, and the same team chose Duncan as a second-rounder in the 1975 supplemental draft. They played for the Orlando Twins in 1976 against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Shipley is a businessman living in Soddy-Daisy; Bode is a financial planner in South Florida.
• Jacksonville State senior Sam Eberle from Notre Dame High School was the Ohio Valley Conference baseball player of the week after going 8-for-12 (.667) with a home run, a triple, two doubles and eight runs scored in three games last week. He was 5-for-5 with a homer, a double and four runs in the series finale with Tennessee Tech. That gave him a league-leading .486 batting average, a 10-game hitting streak and 17 consecutive games of reaching base safely.
• The Belmont University pitchers who include starter Chase Brookshire from McCallie and reliever Scott Moses from McMinn Central was honored by InsidePitching.com as the national staff of the week. LSU had that distinction the previous week. The Bruins went 4-0 last week and allowed only 27 hits, four walks and three earned runs in 36 innings. Brookshire pitched eight innings against USC Upstate with one walk and six hits allowed and seven strikeouts. He has a 5-1 record with 39 strikeouts, nine walks and a 1.71 earned run average in a team-high 52 innings. Moses has a 1.05 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 25 innings.
Tennis
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshman Kaylene Chadwell from Franklin, Tenn., was announced Tuesday as the Southern Conference women's tennis player of the week for the second time this season. She was 4-0 in singles and doubles last week as the Lady Mocs won 7-0 over Western Carolina and 6-1 over Davidson in SoCon matches. The doubles victories were with Alexa Flynn in the No. 1 spot. Chadwell is 18-9 in singles this semester, 7-2 in league matches, and she leads UTC with a 21-6 doubles record. The Lady Mocs host Lee University in senior day today at 2 p.m. on the UTC courts.
Track & Field
• Sewanee freshman Sally Warm from Baylor School was the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference women's track and field athlete of the week after her record-setting performance last Saturday at Birmingham-Southern's Hilltop Twilight Classic. Warm's best result in the meet was winning the high jump by more than a foot and breaking her own Sewanee record at 5 feet, 6.5 inches. That is the fourth best NCAA Division III women's leap so far this year.
Softball
• Caitlyn Lance from Ridgeland High School was 2-for-4 with a three-run home run in the first game and Sarah Kelley from Ooltewah High had a three-run double in the rematch as Carson-Newman College lost 5-4 and won 5-4 in a softball doubleheader Monday against visiting Erskine. Carson-Newman shortstop Shelby Robertson from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe was 1-for-3 with a run, an RBI and her 17th stolen base in the first game, when Jessica Morgan from Ooltewah scored as a pinch runner. Lance had an RBI and a run in game two for the Lady Eagles (26-19).
• Sewanee's softball team is taking part in the "Beat Cancer With a Bat" fundraiser for the National Foundation for Cancer Research and will do its part in home games Saturday and Sunday against Centre College. The team will be accepting donations at the game and online. "This cause is very close my heart," Tigers coach Amber Gilliam said, "as my mother and younger brother have both fought cancer."