Lee University’s Dominique Hannah was voted softball player of the year in the Southern States Athletic Conference, and Laurel Allen and Ana Coscorrosa from the East Division-winning Lady Flames joined her on the all-conference first team. Four other schools had as many or more selections on the 22-player list, led by West Division champion Auburn-Montgomery and East runner-up Brenau with four each. Amanda Lynn, Jennifer Ringle and pitcher Angie Hughes made the all-division team and Lynn, Hughes and Caroline MacAusland were all-freshmen selections from Lee, which beat William Carey 10-2 in five innings in the SSAC tournament Thursday evening in Columbus, Ga. Carey earlier beat Emmanuel 17-2 in five. Katie Deems improved her pitching record to 8-1 for the nationally third-ranked Lady Flames, and fellow senior Charlie Wooden had a pinch-hit three-run home run. Ringle had three hits and Jeneieve Cena had a two-run double in other contributions from the senior class. Lee faces 12th-ranked Belhaven, a 2-0 winner over Brewton-Parker, at noon today.
• The second-year Tennessee Temple softball program beat Ohio Christian 5-1 and finished second to provisional NCAA Division II member Union University at the National Christian College Athletic Association Mid-East Region tournament Thursday in Jackson, Tenn. Temple’s Lady Crusaders (26-19), which won one game last year, avenged a Wednesday loss to Ohio Christian behind Megan Roysden’s pitching, as Raven Pope went 2-for-4 with a triple and three RBIs, Haley Huskey went 2-for-3 and scored twice and Carley Daniel also had two hits. Amanda Rector had the only hit off Keaton Kirk in Temple’s 4-0 loss to Union (23-20), which got a 1-for-2 game with a run scored by Grace Academy graduate Reagan Schrader.
Baseball
• Nationally third-ranked Lee defeated the University of Mobile 10-0 in pool play Thursday in the SSAC baseball tournament at Columbus, Ga., as Danny Canela went 2-for-2 with two walks and a homer and Cameron Brewster matched him with two RBIs and two runs while going 3-for-4. Josh Silver was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Karsten Strieby was 2-for-3 with two runs and Mark Silva was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run for the Flames (45-10), while Myles Smith and CJ Lusted combined to pitch a seven-inning five-hitter. Smith struck out eight in his six innings. Lee’s final pool game is tonight against William Carey, and the winner of that game will play Saturday for the tournament title.
• Eighth-ranked and reigning NAIA champion Tennessee Wesleyan lost 11-4 to Reinhardt late Thursday night in the Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Kingsport, Tenn., and will play the Eagles for the third time in as many days today at 1:30 p.m. for a berth against Virginia Intermont to determine the champion. Seventh-seeded Bryan was eliminated with a 5-4 loss in 10 innings to Intermont after following up its elimination Wednesday of third-seeded St. Andrews by knocking out No. 2 seed Union College on Thursday. The Lions (31-26) overtook Union with a four-run seventh inning featuring a leadoff double by Grant Zawadzki, walks for Kevin Layne and Andrew Smith and singles by Cody Rhinehart, Blake Johnson and Chris Jeffries. Zawadzki had three hits, Smith was 2-for-3 and Rhinehart also had two hits for Bryan. Leadoff man Joey Underwood was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored against Intermont (29-17), which won on an unearned run in the bottom of the 10th.