Lee University opens its 2017 baseball season with two home games today and one Sunday against Catawba, which is ranked No. 15 in the National College Baseball Writers preseason poll. "They have been a long-standing power in NCAA Division II and had a national-runner-up finish in 2015," Flames coach Mark Brew said in a Lee release. "They are well coached and typically boast a very good pitching staff." His own team has been hit with some preseason injuries, but senior left-hander Art Vidrio and junior transfer Jumpei Akanuma are set to start on the mound in today's games with junior right-hander Rob Gustitus lined up for Sunday. Brew said the Flames as a group have become "more mentally tough" and have handled challenges well. "It will take an incredible amount of toughness to tackle the schedule we have assembled and to be competitive in the always rugged Gulf South Conference." Last year Lee was 30-18 overall and 18-11 in the GSC and won 22 of its last 27 regular-season games.
- Z Arima used a day off from basketball to go 2-for-2 and score a run for the Covenant College baseball team Friday, but no other Scot had more than one hit and they lost 15-4 to Greensboro College in the season opener. The visitors totaled 17 hits and added a six-run third inning to a three-run first. Taylor Bloye, Caleb Bloye, Devin Cerrato and Forrest Hunter had RBIs for Covenant; Mac Graham had three RBIs with three hits for Greensboro, and Zach Neumeister and Kristopher Taveras each homered and drove in two.
Tennis
- The top-seeded men's 60s doubles duo of Wes Cash of Chattanooga and Mark Vines of Naples, Fla., are in the final of the West Coast (Fla.) Super Senior Grand Prix tennis tournament at Naples' Sterling Oaks club after a 6-0, 6-1 win Friday over No. 4 seeds Fred Budde and David Pettengill from Minnesota. Cash and Vines, having lost only two games since the round of 32, will face No. 2 Fred Robinson from Charlotte and Jeffrey Winkler from St. Petersburg, who won their semifinal 7-5, 6-3.
- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshman Niklas Gerdes rebounded from a 6-1 first-game loss to win his No. 2 singles match 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 and clinch the Mocs' first win in five matches this season, 4-2 over Tennessee Tech on Friday night at the Racquet Club in Hixson. After winning the doubles point, UTC got straight-sets singles wins from Max Grobbelaar and Pablo Llebeili before Gerdes prevailed.
Basketball
- The Sewanee women beat visiting Berry 66-51 but the Berry men won 69-66 in Southern Athletic Association basketball games Friday. Bella Taylor and Hannah McCormack scored 18 points each, Taylor with 10 rebounds, for the female Tigers. Clay Born was 4-of-7 on 3-pointers in scoring 22 points for Sewanee;s men, who got 14 points and five assists from Jorden Williams and 15 rebounds from Brody Stone.
- Joanna Smith and Rachel Price had 17 and 15 points and 10 and 11 rebounds in Covenant's 75-51 USA South women's win over visiting Wesleyan (Ga.) on Friday.
- The Georgia Northwestern men won 101-95 Thursday against the Bryan junior varsity in Dayton, but the GNTC women dropped to 0-14 with an 85-37 loss despite 15 points from Sprite Dyer, 11 from Katy Phillips and 11 rebounds with nine points from Sharqueva McCoy. For the winning Bobcats (10-8), Darrius Fugh had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Daniel Parrish had 21 points and eight assists, Demonte Parker scored 19 points and Patrick Simmons hit six 3s for 18 points. Bryan's Clay Jenkins also had six 3s and scored 22, while Grant Parker added 20 with five 3s.
Track & Field
- Carson-Newman's Tiana Mills from GPS provisionally qualified Friday in Johnson City, Tenn., for long-jump inclusion in the NCAA Division II track and field indoor nationals. She already had provisionally qualifed for the triple jump, just as CNU's T.J. Davis from Ooltewah had done for the men's long jump. Mills had the third best women's jump Friday in an event loaded with Division I athletes.