Brandon Cunniff, who pitched in 2009 for the Lee University baseball team, was called up to the Atlanta Braves on Monday, giving the Flames two former players who reached the big-league level. Lance Zawadzki from the 2007 Flames was drafted by the Padres that year and was called up to San Diego in 2010. After going 4-1 for Lee in a season that ended with a third-place finish in the NAIA World Series and a 53-14 record, Cunniff was picked by the Marlins in the 27th round of the 2010 draft. He spent a year in their farm system before being released and then played for multiple teams in the Frontier independent league before the Braves signed him in the summer of 2013. “Brandon’s journey to the big leagues is an amazing story of perseverance,” Lee coach Mark Brew said in a school release. “I always considered his arm to be loose and very good. I knew it would improve as he progressed through his career. With the Braves in a rebuilding plan, it is a great opportunity for Brandon to establish himself as a key bullpen arm in the resurrection of the proud Braves franchise. It’s a phenonemal achievement, and we wish him the best as he continues his professional career.” Cunniff, 26, is a 6-foot tall, 185-pound right-hander.
* Covenant College rallied from a 10-0 deficit and won 15-14 in NCAA Division III baseball Tuesday at Sewanee. Tony Dykes and Jackson Cooper hit three-run homers as the Tigers (9-18) built their big lead, and Ryan Poole had a two-run single in between, but Covenant scored five runs on four hits in the top of the fifth and added three runs in the sixth and sixth in the seventh. Scott Gillespie was 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs, Caleb Bloye had two hits and four RBIs, Will Cleland was 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs, Will Carlton was 3-for-5 with two doubles and K.C. Simons scored three runs for Covenant (11-17), and Perry Rigby homered and doubled and pitched the last 5 1/3 innings for the win. Dykes hit another three-run homer for Sewanee in the sixth, and Cooper drove in four runs. Those two and Drew Mancuso scored three runs apiece, Mancuso going 3-for-5 and allowing only one hit in three innings as the first of six Tigers pitchers.
Golf/Softball
* The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s golf team moved up and finished in a tie for seventh with Kansas at the Old Waverly Collegiate tournament Tuesday at West Point, Miss., and the Mocs’ Liam Johnston and Ewan Scott tied for eighth and 13th individually at 5-under-par 211 and 213. Johnston closed with a 69 as UTC shot 290 in the final round, completing an 875. UAB ended at 850 and won by a stroke over Florida. Wes Gosselin shot 224 and tied for 50th for UTC.
* Dalton State’s Sean Elliott was announced Tuesday as the Southern States Athletic Conference men’s golfer of the week for March 30-April 5. He shot a 147 and tied for second out of 80 golfers in the Tennessee River Rumble held March 30-31 at Tennessee National Golf Club at Loudon. He has a 71.65 scoring average through 23 rounds this season, with 73 birdies and three eagles.
* Lee University golfer Taylor Davis and softball player Kaylie Drew were National Christian College Athletic Association student-athletes of the week for performances last week. Davis, honored for the second week in a row, shot a 68 that was the best round in the Argonaut Invitational at Gulf Breeze, Fla., and he finished fourth individually. Drew was 11-for-17 with two home runs, three doubles and 13 RBIs in a 5-1 week for the Lady Flames. She leads her team with a .411 batting average, 11 homers and 11 doubles.
* Piedmont College won 10-3 and 8-2 over Covenant in their USA South softball doubleheader Tuesday on Lookout Mountain, and Allison Vaughn from Heritage High School was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in the first win for Piedmont (13-9, 10-8). Jordan Brett was 2-for-3 with a homer, a double and two RBIS and Morgan Lane and Joni Johnson each had two hits also in that game for Covenant (9-17, 2-14), and Shannon Schmitt was 2-for-3 and Kasey Hart had the home team’s other RBI in game two.
* Tennessee Temple totaled only four hits and lost 13-0 and 10-0 in softball games Tuesday against visiting Milligan. That dropped the Lady Crusaders to 5-19.