Tennessee Wesleyan won 3-2 and 6-2 in Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball Friday at Milligan, and No. 21 Bryan edged visiting Reinhardt 7-5 in the first game of their doubleheader in Dayton. Paolo Montezuma was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Wardy Polanco also was 2-for-4 in TWC’s first game, when Ryan Hartman allowed no earned runs and struck out eight in eight innings and Chevis Hoover got the save with a two-strikeout ninth. The Bulldogs, ranked fifth in the NAIA, are 38-10 overall and 22-3 in the AAC.
– Cleveland State won 12-3 and 11-8, the latter in eight innings after trailing 8-4, in TCCAA baseball Friday at Roane State. Devin Gardner was 4-for-5 in each game – with two home runs, a triple and seven RBIs in the first and three RBIs in the second – and Hagan Kennedy was 2-for-3 with three RBIs while Drew Korzybski (8-2) pitched a six-hitter in the opener. Billy Brand’s two-run homer tied the second game in the seventh, and John Anderson had a two-run single in the eighth for the Cougars (30-18, 17-9). Blake Thomas was 4-for-4 and scored three runs and Christian Burnett homered and singled.
– Lee University lost 7-5 to visiting West Florida in a Gulf South baseball game moved from Sunday to Friday night (leaving a doubleheader today). Robert Lopez had three RBIs for the Argonauts (33-13, 24-7), while Chris Adams was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Trenton Hill, Luke Toms and M.J. Brown had two hits each for Lee (30-16, 18-11). Hill and Brown totaled three runs and two RBIs.
Claire McMastersVolleyball
– Grace Academy senior Claire McMasters signed a national letter of intent Friday morning to continue her volleyball career at Lee University. That makes her an LU Flame, not unlike her older brother Carter, who played basketball for the Liberty Flames. Claire starred in both basketball and volleyball at Grace and considered both for college, mainly talking to NCAA Division III programs, but she was excited that Division II Lee is adding the major she wants, sports management, for the 2016-17 school year. The 6-foot-2 McMasters surpassed 1,000 career kills and 1,000 basketball points as a senior – winding up with 1,202 kills, 249 blocks and 138 aces in the fall sport. “She’s very athletic, and she’s been in the gym jump-training and working out. She has a very nice vertical,” said Grace coach Hillary Waters, who also praised McMasters’ leadership, “positive attitude” and “the awesome atmosphere she creates around her.”
Softball
– Chattanooga State won 3-1 in eight innings and lost 11-3 in TCCAA softball Thursday night at Columbia State and then won 7-5 and lost 8-7 on Friday. The last game was cut short by rain. Brie Levy’s seventh-inning homer tied the score for the Lady Tigers (40-18) in Thursday’s first game, and extra-inning homers by Lillie McCrary and Jordan Roberts made a winner of pitcher Labrisha Washington. Colbie Thomas was 3-for-4 with a double. In the loss, Shannon Plese was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Madison Kurtz was 2-for-2 and scored twice. McCrary was 3-for-4 with three homers in the first game Friday and 1-for-2 with another homer and two runs in the finale, when Jennah McElheney was 2-for-2 and scored. Kurtz was 2-for-3 with an RBI double in the win.
– Fifth-seeded Milligan edged No. 2 seed Bryan 6-5 in the losers-bracket final but then lost 7-1 to top seed Reinhardt as the AAC softball tournament ended Friday at Kingsport, Tenn. Mariam Wood was 3-for-4 and Leslie Nunnelly was 2-for-3 with two RBIs for Bryan (29-23), while Kim Borowski also was 2-for-3.
– Brenau beat Coastal Georgia 7-2 but lost 3-2 in nine innings to Mobile and was eliminated from the SSAC softball tournament Friday in Montgomery, Ala. Kelsey Payne from East Hamilton doubled in a run and scored twice in the win and was 4-for-5 with one of the runs in the loss.