The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced that Sewanee’s John Shackelford is the Atlantic South men’s coach of the year for 2017, and the Tigers’ Felix Mann is the region’s assistant coach of the year. Under their direction, the Tigers were 22-4 and are No. 22 in the ITA’s most recent poll. They went 7-0 in the Southern Athletic Association in the regular season and added the program’s fifth consecutive SAA tournament championship. Shackelford is the tournament director for the NCAA Division III national championships next week at the Champions Club in Chattanooga.
Softball
* The Chattanooga State softball team is out of the NJCAA Division I tournament in St. George, Utah, after two 5-4 losses. The 10th-seeded Lady Tigers (44-13) fell to seventh seed San Jacinto-South in the late round of games Wednesday and to 15th seed Georgia Military (47-16) on Thursday. Tori Barnes batted in two runs and pitcher Kaleigh Wynne homered and singled against San Jac South. Chatt State rallied from a 4-0 deficit to tie, but the Texas team went ahead again in the sixth. The sixth was key again Thursday, as Georgia Military scored five in the home half and then weathered the Lady Tigers’ three-run seventh. Madison Kurtz’s home run gave Chatt State a 1-0 lead in the fifth. She and Wynne each was 2-for-3, Kurtz with two RBIs. Snead State (30-41), which had lost 9-1 to top-seeded Butler (now 55-1) on Wednesday, was eliminated with a 15-9 loss to Tyler (51-18).
* Pitcher Becca Taylor and 10th-ranked West Florida defeated Lee University 2-0 Thursday in their NCAA Division II softball super regional at Pensacola, Fla. The best-of-three series continues today at 2:30 EDT, and Lee (36-19) must win twice to advance to the eight-team national finals in Salem, Va. The Lady Argos (44-13) scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings of the error-free game and totaled six hits to Lee’s five. Kayla Louie was 2-for-3 for the Lady Flames. “It was a good day. We were one or two balls away from being on the other side of this,” coach Emily Russell said in a Lee release. “Taylor (Moran) pitched well, and it was a close game. They got a few two-out hits, and that was the difference.”
Golf
* Lee is tied for ninth at 642, one stroke out of seventh, halfway through the NCAA Division II women’s golf national tournament in Findlay, Ohio. Lee’s Caroline Moore shot a 76 Thursday and is tied for 17th invidually at 155, while Sam Burrus and Anne Hedegaard share 39th place individually at 161. Dallas Baptist is the team leader at 610.
* Dalton State is in sixth place after 54 of the 72 holes in the NAIA men’s national tournament at TPC Deere Run at Silvis, Ill. The Roadrunners finished a 308 second round Thursday and added a 296 for a 907 total that left them only five shots out of second place but 18 behind Cardinal Stritch. DSC’s S.M. Lee is tied for sixth individually at 221, and Dalton Johnson is tied for 25th at 226 after a 71. P.J. Shields and Chase Cole are at 230, Ben Rebne at 238.
Baseball
* Lee University senior catcher Nate Wierzgac was one of five Gulf South Conference players on the 14-man Division II All-South Region first team picked by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Wierzgac led the Flames regulars with a .360 batting average, a .425 on-base percentage, a .663 slugging percentage, 11 home runs, 39 runs scored, 39 batted in and a .972 fielding percentage and tied for the team lead with 11 doubles.