The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had the only under-par team round Monday and moved up two places to third with 18 holes to go in the Southern Conference men’s golf tournament at Pinehurst, North Carolina. Led by Oliver Simonsen’s 68 – the best individual round of the day – the Mocs shot a 1-under 287 on the Pinehurst No. 9 course for a 36-hole 583, two strokes behind East Tennessee State and six behind 2018 champion UNC Greensboro. Simonsen is third individually at 140 – two behind the leader, defending champ Nick Lyerly of UNCG – and UTC’s Lake Johnson shot 73 and is tied for 10th at 147. Will Porter and Etienne Brault also shot 73s and are tied for 23rd at 151, while Connor Nolan is tied for 17th at 149 after a 77.
* Lee University’s John Maupin repeated Monday as women’s golf coach of the year in the Gulf South Conference, and Haverly Harrold, Annika Gino and Emily Felix from his champion Lady Flames were All-GSC first-team selections. Judianne Speach and Carson McKie were voted to the second team, as were Scott Odell and Evan Spence from Maupin’s men’s squad. “I’m so excited that all five of our (women’s) starters made the All-GSC team,” Maupin said in a Lee release. “I don’t think we have had that happen before, but it certainly speaks to the depth of our lineup. It’s fitting because they all played such a vital role in our GSC Championship victory. These kinds of accomplishments don’t come easy.” The Lady Flames won the GSC tournament by 18 strokes, while the Lee men finished fourth with juniors Odell and Spence fourth and fifth individually.
Softball
* UTC junior Celie Hudson was selected the SoCon softball pitcher of the week for her save and two complete-game shutouts in the Mocs’ three-game sweep of Western Carolina. Her second such honor of the season gave the Mocs seven player and pitcher awards in 2019, most for the program in seven years. Hudson preceded her brilliance against WCU with two hitless innings of relief in a win at Belmont. She gave up no runs and nine hits – all singles – and struck out 15 batters in 16 2/3 innings last week and is 10-8 for the season with a 2.26 earned run average and team bests of 120 2/3 innings, 13 complete games, 114 strikeouts and .217 opponents’ batting average. UTC (29-12, 7-5) plays Saturday and Sunday at ETSU (18-21-2, 4-7).
Baseball
* The NAIA’s No. 2-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan baseball team concluded its Appalachian Athletic Conference home series that began last Thursday against Point University with a 5-4 win and a 13-2 loss Monday. The Bulldogs (40-8, 18-6) had a 5-0 lead through three innings and weathered a four-run ninth for Point (27-19, 11-13) in the first game. Manny Perez was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Dan Fry was 3-for-3 and scored a run, Jhosmel Rodriquez was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Cole Bellair pitched a complete game with only seven hits, one walk and one earned run allowed. Aloysius Cruz was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored for TWU in its loss.
* The 23rd-ranked Bryan Lions won 12-1 and 8-7 at Bluefield and now are 32-12, 16-7 in the AAC. The teams play another game at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Joseph Cuomo struck out 11 in seven innings in the first game, when Tyler Scott was 3-for-5 and scored twice, Gabe Howell drove in three runs, Destine Udombon was 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI, Wade Weinburger was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run and senior Lake Burris broke Weinburger’s school record from last year with his 23rd homer of the season – and amended his Lions career record to 56. For Bryan in the second game, Scott was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run, Howell was 2-for-3 with two runs, Marcus Catalano was 2-for-3 with one run and Jesus Astudillo had two RBIs.
* Covenant College senior John Mitchell was the USA South baseball player of the week, and freshman Hunter Christian was the rookie of the week after the Scots closed out the regular season with four wins in five games. Mitchell was 13-for-24 (.542) with a home run, two triples, three doubles, 10 runs batted in, nine scored and five stolen bases. Riding an 11-game hitting streak, he is batting .341 for the season with team highs of 42 RBIs and 21 steals. Christian went 10-for-23 (.435) last week with a homer, a double, seven RBIs and seven runs and is hitting .263 with 23 RBIs and 31 runs for the season.
Tennis
* The Covenant men’s tennis team is in the USA South tournament as the No. 3 seed from the West Division and will play East No. 2 Methodist at 10 a.m. Friday at LaGrange, Georgia. Covenant did not make the eight-team women’s field.