Freshman Abby McKinney was 4-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored as the Lee University softball team defeated North Alabama 4-2 on Friday in the NCAA Division II South Regional at Saint Leo, Fla. The Lady Flames (35-18) will play today at noon for the championship and must lose twice to be denied. Another Lee freshman, Taylor Moran, went 2-for-4 and came in to pitch with one out in the first inning, when she got out of a bases-loaded situation, and held UNA to one run the rest of the game. That lowered her earned run average to 1.35 for the season. McKinney and Moran also helped Lee take a first-inning lead it never relinquished. Stevie Baird opened with a single, Courtney Crawford sacrificed her to second, McKinney doubled, Moran singled in Baird and Leigh Beatenbough added a swinging bunt that got McKinney home. Beatenbough totaled three RBIs for the game. Reagan Tittle was 3-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs for the Lions but was caught off second by Lee catcher Brooklynn Frazier for their third out in the fifth, just as they loaded the bases.
- Five girls from the ProStar Fastpitch organization have been chosen to take part in the USA Elite Select 30 camp Aug. 18-20 in Baton Rouge, La.: infielder Brittany Ogle from Northwest Whitfield's 2019 graduating class, Coahulla Creek catcher/infielder Rayanna Janke and Heritage catcher/infielder Kaylie Frogge from the class of 2020 and Heritage Middle School infielder Zoe Wright and Trion Middle pitcher/infielder Jenna Mosley from the class of 2022. Players from the 2018-23 classes will compete with the best across the United States for 30 spots per class in USA Elite Select All-American games that Sunday. Ogle has committed to Maryville College and Janke has pledged to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A 2016 Future All-American and a 4.0 student, Frogge is being heavily recruited, and the two middle schoolers already have attracted major college attention as well.
Track & Field
- UTC finished 10th with four points in the Southern Conference women's track and field meet Thursday and Friday at Birmingham, but Selena Popp from Baylor School helped Samford breeze to the championship by winning the heptathlon after finishing second in 2016. Her 5,129 points, 357 clear of second place, included victories in high jump, shot put, javelin and 800-meter run and fourth places in the other three events. Popp also was third in the overall javelin competition and seventh in long jump, and teammate Victoria Wicks, also from Baylor, was second in the 400 hurdles. UTC's Hannah Chamblin finished sixth in the 800, and the Mocs' 4x400 relay team of Abby Bateman, Julia Henderson, Nicole Buehrle and Chamblin got a point for finishing eighth in their best time of the season. Buehrle was 10th in the 1500.
Fishing
- Bryan College's Nathan Bell and Cole Sands moved up to third place Friday in the second round of the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional tournament on Cherokee Lake and are 2 pounds, 6 ounces behind the first-place 31-7 of Tennessee Tech's Sam Carris and John Berry. A Bethel duo is at 29-7, and another is fourth at 28-15. Bryan's Jacob Foutz and Jake Lee are sixth at 27-11 and had the event's biggest bass, a 4-6 smallmouth. Also in the top 21 going out for the final round today are UTC's Gavyn Bridges and Dylan Anderson (12th at 24-9) and Bryan's Dalton Price and Dylan Kear (16th at 24-2) and Matt Brown and D.J. Barber (18th at 23-14). The top 21 also earned berths in the series national tournament this summer.
Golf
- Sewanee finished 10th Friday with a 72-hole 1,293 in the 15-team Division III women's national golf tournament at Houston's Bay Oaks Country Club. The Tigers' Meghan Symonds tied for 29th at 314, and Natalie Javadi and Mary Elizabeth Benton shot 329s with Sarah Battye at 330 and Sophie Merrill at 332. At 1,217, Rhodes won the national title for the second year in a row and the third time in four years.