Chattanooga State bounced back from its five-inning 8-0 loss Wednesday night to sixth-seeded Temple (Texas) in the first round of the NJCAA Division I softball tournament at St. George, Utah, with an 8-3 victory Thursday evening over Lake Land from Illinois. The Lady Tigers (43-10) then were eliminated by Indian Hills, 11-9, despite a remarkable comeback effort. Madison Crabtree homered in each game and batted in eight runs Thursday. Against Lake Land, Chattanooga State responded to a quick 1-0 deficit with her three-run blast in the bottom of the first inning and added single runs in the second and fourth for a 5-1 lead behind starting pitcher Brooke Parrott. Haley Smith was 3-for-3 with an RBI, Lauren Hamby was 2-for-4 with a two-run double and Mary Kate Pritchett was 1-for-2 and scored twice. The Lady Tigers had only four hits against Temple. In the game that ended at 1:22 a.m. EDT, Indian Hills posted back-to-back four-run innings in the third and fourth. Down 10-2, Chattanooga State avoided being run-ruled when Crabtree followed Smith’s fifth-inning walk with a homer. Then Breanna Vinson doubled in a run with one out in the sixth, an error and Smith being hit by a pitch loaded the bases and Crabtree cleared them with a two-out double. Indian Hills’ fourth homer of the game made the score 11-8, but Shelby Penning began the bottom of the seventh with a walk and Hamby doubled her home. The game ended with runners on third and second.
Lacrosse
» Sewanee face-off specialist Ryan Stubits received 2019 All-America honorable mention from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, and he will play this evening in the USILA Senior All Star Game. Stubits, the first from Sewanee to be invited to the postseason showcase, will represent the South in the NCAA Division III contest, which starts at 5 p.m. at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Maryland. A combined Division I/II game will follow. Stubits was fifth in Division III in 2019 with a Sewanee-record 282 face-offs won – at a .686 percentage – and leaves with a school- and SAA-best total of 721 won. He also collected 377 ground balls in 65 career matches.
Golf
» Dalton State College’s Ben Rickett is one of five finalists for the Dave Williams Award honoring the NAIA’s men’s golf coach of the year, and DSC’s Ben Rebne made the NAIA’s PING South Region team. He already was a finalist for the NAIA’s Jack Nicklaus Award for national player of the year, and he was player of the year with Rickett – a former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player and assistant coach – the coach of the year in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Their Roadrunners ended their season Wednesday with a 22nd-place finish in the NAIA national tournament at Mesa, Arizona, but were ranked sixth going in. Zach Womack and Rebne led them in their two rounds with a 153 and a 154.
» Cleveland State’s Colbe Cagle slipped back into a tie for 79th out of 132 participants with his 87 Thursday in the NJCAA Division II men’s golf tournament at Plymouth, Indiana. He’s at 28-over-par 244 going into the final round.
Basketball
» Demonte Person and Jaquez Hicks will go into Cleveland State’s 2019-20 basketball season as sophomore Cougars with an exclusive summer experience. They are among the 160 second-year players nationwide invited to the All-American JUCO Showcase to be held July 12-14 in Atlanta. According to a Cleveland State release, hundreds of coaches from four-year colleges and NBA scouts will attend the showcase, and it will be televised nationally. Person led the Cougars with four assists a game this past season, and Hicks was second in blocked shots.