The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost 9-8 and 8-0 in Southern Conference softball Saturday at UNC Greensboro and dropped to 6-8 in the league, 27-24 overall. The Mocs lost the first game despite a fifth-inning pinch-hit grand slam by Amanda Beltran that put them up 6-4, as UNCG (30-21, 8-6) responded with four runs in its next at-bat but eventually needed a seventh-inning home run by Lindsay Thomas to win. Jordan Fortel batted in three runs and Sam Taylor and Alyssa Taylor each scored two in that game for UTC. Jesslyn Stockard was 2-for-3 in game two.
Deshawn RuffinGeneral
* Dalton State basketball player Deshawn Ruffin has been chosen to represent the Southern States Athletic Conference in the NAIA’s Association of Student-Athletes. ASA members are picked from a pool of nominees sent to the national office by all the conferences and the group of independent NAIA schools. Ruffin will be a junior in the 2016-17 season. He is a graduate of The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., and a DSC scholar athlete sharing in $10,000 of scholarships awarded Thursday night by FSG Bank, along with Austin Hughes and Rachel Rebne for golf, Jordan Man for soccer, Mallory Edwards and Cole Thornton for cross country, Lucie Lovinfosse and Jose Ruda for tennis, Clarissa Weber for volleyball and Alex West for cheer.
Baseball
* Lee University’s Gulf South Conference home baseball doubleheader Saturday against West Florida was rained out and won’t be made up, but the teams will meet next Saturday at Pensacola in the GSC tournament. Game time is 4 p.m. EDT. A late-season surge got Lee’s Flames (30-16 overall) in as the sixth seed at 18-11 in league play. West Florida (33-13, 24-7) is hosting the double-elimination event as the top seed. Lee won 17 of its last 21 GSC games.
* Bryan College won 7-5 and 6-2 over Reinhardt in Friday night’s home baseball doubleheader but lost 10-5 on Saturday, ending the regular season 36-16 and second in the AAC at 18-9. Crandon Wallace was 2-for-2 with a homer, a double and three RBIs in the first game of the series and homered again Saturday; L.J. Rowden pitched a six-hitter, Jesus Astudillo hit a two-run homer and Andrew Urbistondo was 3-for-3 and Evan Speicher and Preston King each 2-for-4, all with an RBI apiece, in game two; and Cody Rhinehart was 3-for-5 and Langston Calhoun was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs in the loss.
* Despite a 5-3 loss at Milligan in its regular-season finale Saturday, the NAIA’s fifth-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan baseball team wound up 23-4 in the AAC and is 39-11 overall. TWC’s Adrian Gonzalez was 3-for-3 with an RBI.
* Chattanooga State lost 6-4 and 5-0 and then won 13-1 in its closing TCCAA baseball series Thursday and Friday at Columbia State. That left the Tigers 34-13 and 17-10 in the league. Cleveland State also wound up 17-10 (30-19 overall) with an 11-inning 7-6 loss Saturday at Roane State. Blake Thomas hit for the cycle, scored three runs and drove in two for the Cougars, while Hagan Kennedy was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Jordan Ransom also had two hits.
Running
* Lee’s Caleb Morgan was voted the GSC men’s track and field coach of the year, and Lee’s Amy Carpenter was the women’s freshman of the year. Morgan, the third-year head coach, directed the Flames to the first GSC track championship since 1986 and to three second-place finishes in meets this season. Carpenter finished fifth in the women’s 1500- and 10,000-meter runs at the league meet and ninth in the 800.
* Ryan Shrum of East Ridge won the First Volunteer Bank 5k race benefiting Catoosa County schools with a time of 18 minutes Saturday morning in Ringgold, and Jan Gautier at 20:49 was the women’s winner and sixth overall, one spot and eight seconds ahead of Jennifer Curtis. Masters winner Tripp McCallie, Nathan Kile, Jonathan Hutchins and Marco Bianchini were second through fifth overall.
Tennis
* Sewanee’s nationally ranked tennis teams both won Southern Athletic Association tournament semifinals by 5-0 scores Saturday at Old Fort Park in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and play Birmingham-Southern today for titles. The Sewanee women, ranked 12th in NCAA Division III, beat Berry; the 36th-ranked Sewanee men topped Millsaps.
Sailing
* Justin Chambers from the Lake Lanier Sailing Club took two firsts and a second with crew members Doug Thome and Winn Storey in the three races held Saturday before thunderstorms ended the day in the Chattanooga Challenge and Tennessee state championship regatta for Catalina 22s on Chickamauga Lake. Places second through fifth were bunched up, led by Bill Robertson from host Privateer Yacht Club with John Rodgers assisting. Tony Cellamare from the Rome Sailing Club, with Ricky Vasquez and James Young, was third; PYC’s Lucas Kindervater with Adam Ankers was fourth; Keith Bennett with Keith Coleman from Lake Martin, Ala., was fifth. PYC organizers hope to get in two more races today, but the weather forecast isn’t favorable. The Silver Fleet for less-experienced sailors got in two races, both won by Britta Kindervater with husband Kent as crew; they are the parents of Lucas.