On the day that Bryan College junior Kemonte Keesee was named the NAIA baseball pitcher of the week, he took on the Lee University team that just moved up to No. 2 in the national rankings. And Keesee won, with a good bit of help from his friends.
Bryan scored seven runs in the second inning and held off the Flames for a 9-8 win at Lee's Olympic Field in Cleveland. A three-run third inning gave the Flames five runs off Keesee (6-1), four of them earned, but Bryan (32-13) stretched its 8-5 lead then to 9-5 in the top of the ninth and weathered a three-run bottom of the final inning.
Billy Veal was 2-for-3 with two homers and three RBIs for the Lions, who got one homer and three RBIs from Tyler Latham. Josh Harris was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
Mike Moore homered and brought in three runs for Lee (39-7-1), the nation's top team in wins, and Corey Davis and Roberto Duran each was 2-for-3 while Brady Renner matched Moore in scoring two runs.
Keesee, who's from Nashville, allowed only one hit in seven scoreless innings last week against another ranked team from Lee's league, Southern Polytechnic.
• Sewanee 14, Rust 0: At Sewanee, Charles Warren and Austin Shea combined to pitch a four-hit shutout for the Tigers (12-17), who got two hits each from Alan Komorowski, Wilson Nealy, Jack Rogers and Blake Williams and two RBIs apiece from Komorowski, Rogers and Allen Thigpen. Thigpen's came on a home run in the six-run sixth inning.
Lady Tigers 45-3
The nationally No. 1-ranked Chattanooga State softball team is 45-3 overall and 10-0 in the TCCAA after winning 11-0 in five innings and 10-0 in six innings Tuesday at Motlow.
Chelsea Burgess was 5-for-8 with two home runs and six RBIs for the Lady Tigers in the doubleheader, and Marina Wilkerson was 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs in the second game after homering and getting another hit in game one. Andrea Dalton was 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBIs in the opener, when Ashley Czechner improved her pitching record to 24-2 and Katie Robinson pitched the last two innings.
Janna Scheff went to 18-1 with the game-two win.
• Lee 11-10, Truett-McConnell 0-0: At Cleveland, Britanny Balough (19-2) pitched a five-inning two-hitter with five strikeouts and Katie Deems and Caitlin Beshears combined on a five-inning one-hitter, Deems with five strikeouts in four innings, as the Lady Flames improved to 36-7, 13-3 in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
Laurel Allen was 3-for-3 with a homer, a triple, a double and eight RBIs in the two games for Lee. She drove in six runs in the opener, when Dezirae Parsons was 2-for-3 with a homer and three runs scored and Savanna Bell also was 2-for-3. Charlie Wooden was 1-for-2 with two runs in game one and 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run in game two, when Kelsey Barnes was 1-for-2 with three RBIs and two runs.
In other NAIA games, Tennessee Wesleyan improved to 14-20 by winning 10-1 and 13-0 at Talladega College. Bryan lost 5-0 and 5-2 in Appalachian Athletic Conference play at Point (12-32, 5-7) and is now 12-32, 5-7.
Memphis sweeps
Laura Curtis from Chattanooga Christian and Chattanooga State was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and GPS graduate Jessica Phillips was 1-for-3 and scored a run as Memphis beat Alcorn State 10-0 in the first game of their softball doubleheader Tuesday.
Each was 1-for-2 and scored a run in the 8-0 second game, when Phillips added an RBI, Curtis stole a base and GPS alumna Kamri Chester scored twice.