For the second year in a row, Sewanee has promoted a young assistant men's basketball coach to head coach after the departure of his former boss for another job. The new head coach is Michael "Mick" Hedgepeth, a former Belmont University standout who was on the Williams College staff before working with the Tigers this past season. "During his brief tenure at Sewanee, Coach Hedgepeth has shown that he has the leadership skills, the work ethic and the recruiting skills to become Sewanee's next head men's basketball coach," athletic director Mark Webb said in the announcement release. The Tigers went 15-12 in 2016-17. Hedgepeth had 1,191 points, 691 rebounds and 78 blocked shots in his Belmont career and was all-conference twice and the Atlantic Sun tournament most valuable player in 2011. He was the A-Sun male student-athlete of the year in 2012 and an NCAA postgraduate scholar. "Mick is one of the most accomplished and competitive players to ever play for Belmont," longtime Bruins coach Rick Byrd said in the Sewanee release. "He is a young man of great character and integrity who won numerous national awards for both his athletic and academic accomplishments. I am confident that the University of the South has hired one of the brightest young coaches in the country." Said Williams coach Kevin App: "Sewanee has hired a terrific coach and a better person."
* The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has put 2017-18 season tickets for women's basketball on sale. The season likely will include the 900th career win for coach Jim Foster, and the Mocs should be strong contenders to try for their 21st Southern Conference regular-season championship and 18th SoCon tournament title. General-admission season tickets cost $100 each; it's $125 for padded reserve seats. They are on sale at the McKenzie Arena box office, which is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, by phone at 266-MOCS or at GoMocs.com.
Baseball
* Tennessee Wesleyan is seeded No. 1 and Bryan College is No. 3 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball tournament, which runs Wednesday through Saturday at Hunter Wright Stadium in Kingsport, Tenn. TWU (35-18, 20-7), fourth seeded Reinhardt (36-18, 16-11), fifth seed Union College (27-22, 14-13) and eighth seed Bluefield (25-26, 10-17) are in Pool A. Second seed Point (32-19, 20-7), Bryan (35-16, 17-10), sixth seed Truett McConnell (28-25, 12-15) and seventh seed Milligan (23-27, 11-16) are in Pool B. After double elimination deciding each pool winner, those teams will face off for the tournament championship. Bryan will play Truett at noon Wednesday; TWU and Bluefield close out the first day with a scheduled 7 p.m. start. Bryan's Lions have hit 83 home runs this season, led by Lake Burris with a school-record 18, Wade Weinburger with 17, C.J. Owens with 13, Trevor Behrent with 11 and Justin Morhardt with 10.
Softball
* Brenau catcher Savannah Moore from Soddy-Daisy was announced Monday as the Southern States Athletic Conference softball player of the week for her part in the NAIA's No. 2-ranked Golden Tigers' run to the league tournament title. Brenau's Kathleen Daniel was the tournament MVP and is the pitcher of the week for the ninth time in 11 weeks. Moore caught all four games in the tournament and batted .385 with a hit in every game, including the two-out, two-run single that won the winners-bracket final. She is batting .299 with 11 doubles and 31 RBIs.
* Tennessee Wesleyan junior Rachel Mathews from Crossville was the AAC softball pitcher of the week after posting the lowest earned run average in the league tournament, 0.76. She was 2-0 with a save for the third-place Lady Bulldogs and was named to the all-tournament team.