Area juco teams win in regionals

DYERSBURG, Tenn. -- Both Chattanooga State teams and Cleveland State's baseball Cougars all won Saturday in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII tournaments.

The third-seeded Cougars edged Motlow State 7-6 and will face No. 2 seed Chattanooga State, a 10-2 winner over Volunteer State, in a winners-bracket semifinal at 5 p.m. EDT today.

In softball, top-seeded and nationally seventh-ranked Chattanooga State beat Southwest Tennessee 8-0 in five innings as Haley Workman pitched a three-hitter with eight strikeouts. The Lady Tigers (48-12) face Walters State at 11 a.m. EDT and will play at least one more game today.

Walters' Kaylee Garrett was 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs and Brittany Williams was 3-for-3 with three runs and an RBI in a 9-5 defeat of Jackson State.

Motlow State, which ended Chattanooga State's streak of 15 region titles last year, is in the losers bracket after falling 6-4 to Columbia State despite three hits apiece from Amy Buwalda and Nicole Johnson.

Chattanooga State leadoff batter Tabitha McNew was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored and Whitney Galloway and Kendall Bruning each batted in three runs, Galloway with a triple and a single and Bruning with a double and a sacrifice fly. Leah Kelley was 2-for-3 and Alex Buffington and Galloway each scored twice.

The baseball Tigers trailed 2-0 before beginning a string of five scoring innings with a two-run fourth. Michael Maxwell tripled twice, Gabe Herman doubled and singled, and they, Zack DeBord and Adam Whitlock drove in two runs each for Chattanooga State (32-12). Herman stole three bases and scored twice.

Max Aeschilmann was the winning pitcher with relief from Josh Coppinger. Taylor McGilvray was 3-for-3 and scored a run for Vol State.

Cleveland State led 4-0 and 7-1 before Motlow's Bucks totaled five runs in the eighth and ninth innings. Trevor Burgess had a three-run triple and scored on a wild pitch in the second for the Cougars (31-17), and Adam Hindman doubled in two runs in the fifth. An unearned run in the seventh turned out to be the deciding score as Kirkland Wheeler had a two-run single in the eighth for Motlow and, helped by two errors, Clint Ambrosch had a two-run single and Zac Mitchell an RBI hit in the ninth.

Zach Driggers got the save for Travis Tingle. Cody Hooper was 3-for-5 and Burgess, Gray Hutchinson and Hindman each had two hits for Cleveland State. Mitchell was 3-for-5 for Motlow (28-19).

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