No. 2 seed Dalton State College will play fourth-seeded Loyola of New Orleans at 7:30 EST Saturday night for the Southern States Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament championship in Montgomery, Alabama. DSC (29-3), ranked fourth in NAIA Division I, defeated third seed Stillman (20-10) 79-70 on Friday as SSAC co-player of the year Randy Bell scored 17 points and Kevon Tucker and Rodley Adjei each contributed 14 points and seven rebounds. Igor Stokic and Dauson Womack added 12 and 11 points and eight and seven rebounds for the Roadrunners. Loyola later upset top-seeded Faulkner 69-66.
Softball
* The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team began its lengthy stay in Clearwater, Florida, with a 1-0 loss to Seton Hall and a 3-1 win over Western Michigan on Friday. The Mocs’ fifth 1-1 day of the season left them 6-11 with nine more games scheduled in Clearwater through March 15. Celie Hudson and Allison Swinford each pitched a three-hitter with only an unearned run allowed, but Hudson took a loss as UTC got only three hits against Seton Hall. Emily Coltharp was 3-for-3 and scored a run in the win, when Katie Corum and Aly Walker came through with two-out RBI singles.
* Cleveland State beat visiting Roane State 11-5 and 7-6 in TCCAA games Friday, highlighted by two Amber Atkins three-run home runs in the second game. Hannah Turner was 2-for-2 with two walks and two runs in that game after going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs in the opener, when Haley Fair was 2-for-3 with a homer, three RBIs and two runs. The Lady Cougars trailed 5-0 before scoring two in the fifth inning and nine in the sixth.
Baseball
* Lee University senior ace Logan Workman was even more masterful than usual Friday, pitching a nine-inning one-hitter with 12 strikeouts and no walks in a Gulf South Conference series opener at Valdosta State. Workman (5-0) faced the minimum 27 batters. His teammates struck out 10 times and managed only four hits and two runs, one earned, in seven innings against Blazers starter Zach Blankenship (2-1) but erupted for six runs in the eighth after he left the game. Ryan Beamish hit a three-run homer after a two-run Alan Smith single in that inning, and Justin Fragale was 2-for-3 with two RBIs as well for the Flames (11-9, 4-3). His first was on a safety-squeeze bunt that brought in Thomas Zazzaro for a 1-0 lead in the fourth. VSU is 12-4, 4-2.
* Covenant College sophomore Hunter Christian made the D3baseball.com national Division III team of the week for Feb. 24-March 1 performances, and Friday the Scots set program records of 15 runs in an inning (the third) and five homers in a game with a 22-0 USA South blowout of visiting and winless Averett. Freshman Kenny Mills hit two of the homers and a double and was 3-for-3 with three RBIs and four runs scored. Trevor Grapenthin was 3-for-3 with a grand slam, a triple, a double and school-record-tying six RBIs, and Tyler Moore – a team-of-the-week honoree earlier this season – was 3-for-4 with a homer, a double, four RBIs and three runs. Brooks DuBose was 2-for-3 with a homer and five RBIs. Meanwhile, Jackson Heuer pitched a seven-inning three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts for Covenant (8-4, 4-0). Josh Harvey scored three times and Christian and CJ Edmond each was 2-for-4 with two runs. Christian came into the weekend batting .412 with 13 RBIs and 11 runs after going 6-for-11 (.545) last week with a homer, five runs and four RBIs.
* Lance Dockery went 3-for-4 with the tying homer, the go-ahead single in the sixth inning and four RBIs in all as Cleveland State won 6-4 in the opening game of a TCCAA home series against Roane State. Also for the Cougars, Alex Ray was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Jonathan Hickman was 2-for-4.
Compiled by Ron Bush. Contact him at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.