Lee University’s first-ever NCAA Division II regional softball game was a 7-4 victory Thursday afternoon over third-seeded Alabama-Huntsville at Saint Leo, Fla. UAH (41-16) was the regular-season champion of the Gulf South Conference, which had six of the eight teams in the South Region tournament. Trailing 4-3, the sixth-seeded Lady Flames (34-18) scored four runs in the fourth inning, featuring a two-run double by Annabeth Pruett and a Stevie Baird squeeze-bunt RBI, and freshman pitcher Taylor Moran (12-5) retired UAH’s last 12 batters. She allowed three hits and one run, unearned, in her 5 1/3 innings of relief. Kayla Louie was 2-for-3 and scored twice, Baird was 2-for-3 with a walk and Courtney Crawford, Moran and starting pitcher Leigh Beatenbough each was 2-for-4 for Lee, which plays North Alabama at noon today. Freshman Abby McKinney from Ringgold, who singled in Baird for the first run of the game, is the NFCA Division II South all-region first-team designated player. That was based on her .340 batting average, 45 RBIs and 25 runs in the regular season.
Golf
– The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has added an All-Big East golfer from St. John’s University to its women’s recruiting class for 2017-18. The junior transfer is Kirsty Beckwith, a native of Alwoodley, Leeds, England, whose 76.16 scoring average this past season was fourth best in the Big East. She won the Quinnipiac Classic by nine strokes, was a runner-up three times in her other eight tournaments and finished ninth in the conference tournament. Beckwith represented England in the 2014 U18 Nations Cup and was a 2016 WGCA All-American Scholar. UTC coach Colette Murray said in a school release that Beckwith was a “really solid player coming out of England a few years ago. She didn’t have a great freshman year (at St. John’s) but was really, really good as a sophomore. She wants to be in a more competitive environment and feels like we can provide that. I believe she can really help us.”
– Dalton State freshman SM Lee from Buford, Ga., is one of five finalists for the 2017 NAIA Jack Nicklaus player of the year award presented by Barbasol. Lee won four tournaments in the 2016-17 school year and has finished no lower than sixth in nine events. He leads the NAIA in adjusted stroke average and was the Southern States Athletic Conference player of the year. Nicklaus awards are presented annually in all three divisions of the NCAA as well as the NAIA and the NJCAA, and this year’s five winners will compete June 3 in the Barbasol Shootout in Columbus, Ohio, for a spot in the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship July 20-23 at Opelika, Ala. Dalton State will play in the NAIA national tournament beginning Tuesday at TPC Deere Run in Moline, Ill.
– The fifth-ranked Dalton State women were among the 30 participating teams officially announced for the NAIA national tournament May 23-26 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. First- and second-round pairings will be revealed at 4 p.m. EDT today at www.naia.org. DSC automatically qualified as the SSAC tournament champion.