Kevin Layne was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs as Bryan College defeated nationally third-ranked Lee University in NAIA baseball Tuesday at Cleveland. Grant Zawadzki also had two hits, scored two runs and drove in one for the Lions (15-13), who totaled only five hits off five Lee pitchers. The Flames (23-7) had nine hits but got all their runs on Derrick Pitts’ homer in the sixth, after the visitors had taken a 4-0 lead. Karsten Strieby was 2-for-3 and Danny Canela also had two hits for Lee.
• Scott Gillespie’s two-out single in the ninth inning tied the game for Covenant and Sterling Witt’s two-out two-run single in the 11th gave the Scots a 10-9 Southern Athletic Association baseball win Tuesday at Berry. Witt pitched the 11th and got out of a first-and-third jam for the save. Covenant (15-3) stole 11 bases in its eighth straight win, with Will Cleland stealing three and Perry Rigby taking two. Gillespie was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs, and K.C. Simons and Cleland each had two hits and scored twice.
• Southern Polytechnic State pulled away from Tennessee Temple in the latter half of their baseball game Tuesday in Marietta and won 12-2. Nico McElrath hit a run-scoring double and Sean Leitstein had the other RBI for Temple (10-10), which is playing its rained-out Monday doubleheader against Maranatha Baptist Bible today at 1 p.m. at AT&T Field. That meant cancelling the Crusaders’ scheduled trip to Sewanee.
• Chattanooga State postponed its scheduled baseball home doubleheader Tuesday against Hiwassee until April 24, when the teams were to meet in Madisonville. Chatt State will play one game at Hiwassee on April 9 and added a trip to Rome, Ga., today to face the Shorter junior varsity.
Volleyball
• Three-sport athlete Malika Gardner from Woodland High School in Stockbridge, Ga., came with her family Tuesday morning to Chattanooga to sign scholarship papers to play volleyball at Tennessee Temple University. At 5-foot-7 1/2, she played middle hitter for the Woodland team that went 34-2 last fall, but she said she “played pretty much everywhere” for the Crush club team. She chose Temple over Talladega College. “I like the small campus, and I like the classroom setting,” said Gardner, who also plays basketball and runs sprints and hurdles in track. “And chapel was nice. I think this school will help me become a better person.” Lady Crusaders assistant coach Liva Brivule first saw Gardner at a tournament. “I really like her volleyball skills, and she was moving really well,” Brivule said. “She is athletic and talks well on the court.”