Michael Halley was 4-for-5 and Nate Schmal was 3-for-5 and each batted in three runs as Chattanooga State beat Georgia champion Darton State 7-3 in the first game of the NJCAA East Central District baseball tournament Thursday at Morristown, Tenn.
Chattanooga State, ranked 22nd nationally, plays No. 4 host Walters State at 3 p.m. today, after No. 14 Darton State and No. 23 South Georgia State face off in an elimination game at 11 a.m. Walters (52-10) beat the Hawks 11-1 in six innings.
Austin Hutchison pitched seven innings, allowing five hits and two runs, to improve his season record to 9-3 for Chattanooga State (31-11), and Jacob Mason was greeted by a home run from Luis Salas but allowed no more hits in two innings. Salas was 4-for-4 and scored all three runs for Darton (40-18).
Andy Clay and Michael Goss each was 2-for-5 and scored a run for Chattanooga State. Goss scored the first run of the game after his one-out single in the fourth inning, followed by two-out singles from Chaz Vesser and Schmal.
The key inning was the Tigers’ four-run seventh, when Ben Young led off with a single to left field and Hunter Parker and Clay bunted for hits and Halley and Schmal hit two-run singles to center, the latter with two outs.
Ramon Osuna was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored for Walters’ Senators, whose Andrew Gist (8-2) allowed only one hit, a sixth-inning homer by Chase Morris.
* In the USCAA national tournament, aka Small College World Series, at Hampton, Va., Tennessee Temple lost 4-1 to Penn State Greater Allegheny (32-7) in the second round and will play an elimination game at 9 this morning. Only two of the runs off Temple pitcher Chase White were earned.
The Crusaders (21-11) scored in the fifth on Ryan Bruce’s two-out single after Hunter Brown’s leadoff triple; Micah Wyatt was 2-for-3 and walked intentionally before Bruce batted.
* In the NAIA opening-round series at Daytona Beach, third seed Bryan College eliminated top seed Auburn-Montgomery on Wednesday, 6-2, but was ousted Thursday with a 5-4 loss to Rio Grande. Chris Jeffries was 3-for-4 with a triple, a double and two runs scored in the defeat, when Preston King drove in two runs and Langston Calhoun and Kelvin McMiller also had RBIs.
Calhoun was 3-for-4 with a triple, an RBI and a run, McMiller was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Kevin Roberts was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored against AUM, while pitcher Francisco Colin allowed five hits in eight innings. Earlier Wednesday, Bryan (44-18), beat Southeastern 4-2 as Cody Rhinehart was 3-for-4 with an RBI, King was 2-for-4 with a triple, an RBI and two runs and Jeffries and Roberts each was 2-for-4. L.J. Rowden was the winning pitcher.
* In the NAIA opening-round series at Kingsport, Tenn., top-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan lost 10-1 to No. 2 seed Lindsey Wilson on Wednesday and 4-1 to the Kentucky team Thursday, with an 11-inning 4-3 win over Freed-Hardeman in between.
Wardy Polanco was 2-for-3, Chase Edwards and Cody Stroud also had two hits each and Ridge Hoopi-Haslam hit a two-run homer for Wesleyan (45-12) against Freed, which scored all three runs in the first inning. Edwards scored the winning run on Cody Hiefnar’s single. TWC’s Chris Washington allowed two earned runs in his 7 1/3 innings and Brandon Landrie yielded four hits and no runs in 3 2/3.
Shell McCain, Polanco and Tyler Albert had two hits apiece in the Bulldogs’ final game. Polanco tripled and scored their run on a hit by Haslam-Ridge.
* In the NCCAA Mid-East Region tournament at Cleveland, Tenn., host Lee University won the final 8-1 against second seed Bluefield and advanced to the national tournament starting Wednesday in Mason, Ohio. Bluefield won 8-7 in 10 innings in the losers-bracket final against Hiwassee, which had eliminated Morthland 11-3 in Wednesday’s late game.
Randall Coley was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, Charles Chavis drove in three runs and Bryan Woodlief and Garrison Sisson each had three hits and two runs for Hiwassee (30-22) against Morthland. Coley had two RBIs against Bluefield, when Chavis, Dalton Harrelson, Woodlief and Cameron Smith each had two hits.
In the title game for Lee (34-18-1), Luke Toms homered, singled and drove in three runs, M.J. Brown and Nathan Wierzgac each was 3-for-4 and Brown and Cameron Scott each had two RBIs. The Flames scored six runs in the fifth inning for Jacob Potts, who allowed six hits and struck out eight in seven innings. Ridge Ackerman had two hitless innings in relief.