Fresh off the NAIA World Series all-tournament team, Tennessee Wesleyan pitcher Cole Bellair is a second-team NAIA baseball All-American for the 2019 season, and teammate and fellow Illinois resident Braden Mosley received honorable mention along with Bryan College slugger Lake Burris from Chatsworth, Georgia. All three were seniors this season. Bellair was 11-2 with a save and a 1.61 earned run average going into the World Series, and the Appalachian Athletic Conference pitcher of the year struck out 84 batters and walked only 19 in 89 1/3 innings. He added two wins in the World Series. Mosley, the AAC player of the year, had a .401 batting average, 16 home runs, eight other extra-base hits, 58 RBIs and 53 runs pre-Series for the 56-10 national champions. Burris hit .320 for the 23rd-ranked Lions with 73 RBIs, 65 runs and a school-record 29 homers, setting his career record at 62.
Golf
» The Wolcott brothers of Burns, Tennessee, are first and second at 131 and 132 after Wednesday’s round in the 71st Tennessee State Open at GreyStone Golf Club in Dickson. They are a combined 25 under par. Hunter Wolcott, who plays for the Tennessee Volunteers, kept his first-round lead with a 68, while his older sibling Ben moved up three spots with a second consecutive 66. Germantown’s Doug Barron carded a 63 and is tied for third at 133 with Milton’s Tanner Owens. UTC alumni Brooks Thomas and Bryce Ledford are tied for eighth and 12th at 136 and 137, and fellow Chattanoogan Paul Apyan and Evensville’s Hunter Green are in the group sharing 17th at 138.
» Bruce Murphy of Johns Creek, Georgia, took the boys’ lead Wednesday in the Evitt Foundation RTC Junior All-Star at WindStone with a 66 for a two-day 135. Luke Coyle of Kentucky and Nicklaus Etherton of Friendsville, Tennessee, shot 65s and are second at 136 and fourth at 138 with Mississippian Collins Trolio in between. Ooltewah’s Sheldon McKnight and Dalton’s Wyatt Brackett are tied for 19th at 144. Cleveland resident Hannah Nall is tied for 22nd at 167 in the girls’ division, where Ava Merrill of Johns Creek is at 134 with a three-stroke lead over Singapore’s Yoko Tai. Lily Bloodworth of Hendersonville is third at 138, one better than Californian Faith Low.
Track & Field
» Bryan’s Brady Smith, Tennessee Wesleyan’s Devonte Fletcher and Rachel Gallison and Dalton State’s Hayley Hight are among the 2018-19 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes for track and field. Each honoree must be at least a junior academically and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale.