Top-seeded Bryan College had seven of the 17 All-Appalachian Athletic Conference first-team baseball players, the newcomer of the year in junior pitcher Stephen Chamblee and the coach of the year, Taylor Hasty, revealed Wednesday night.
And the NAIA's ninth-ranked Lions defeated eighth seed Union (Ky.) 11-6 in the first round of the 2018 AAC tournament in Kingsport, Tenn.
Earlier, Point edged Truett McConnell 1-0, third seed Reinhardt beat Milligan 7-0 and regular-season co-champion and 19th-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan routed Montreat 10-0.
Wesleyan placed the senior trio of outfielder Tristan Clarke, catcher Dakota Phillips and pitcher Daniel Tolano on the All-AAC first team, and senior Collin Ridout and junior Aloysius Cruz made the second team. Clarke joined Bryan's Chamblee on the gold glove team, and Cruz and Bryan junior Tucker Cain were Champions of Character representatives along with Reinhardt senior Grant Sane from Dalton.
Bryan's all-conference picks with Chamblee were senior first baseman Lake Burris, senior pitcher Brandon Marklund, senior outfielder Fernando Garcia, sophomores David Scoggins and Wade Weinburger and senior catcher Cody Young. Senior Rodney Tennie made the second team.
Garcia and Young were 5-for-5 and 3-for-5 with two RBIs apiece Wednesday night for the Lions (39-13), who got two RBIs also from Trevor Behrent. Young homered and doubled; Garcia doubled twice and scored twice. Weinburger and Tyler Scott each homered and scored two runs.
For TWU (35-18), Cole Bellair had 11 strikeouts and gave up only five hits in his six innings pitched against Montreat, and Chris Baetzel and Alfred Cruz had two-run hits. Tyler Halas was 2-for-4 and scored two runs and catcher Grant Lang was 2-for-4 with his courtesy runner, Kyle Tunnell, scoring twice. Phillips and Braden Mosley each had two hits and an RBI.
Two Flames All-GSC
Lee University senior outfielder Jordan Howard is a 2018 All-Gulf South Conference first-team honoree, and Flames freshman relief pitcher Logan Workman from Soddy-Daisy made the second team.
Howard is batting .327 with 11 home runs, 10 doubles and 38 RBIs. Workman is 3-1 with four saves, a 1.88 earned run average and 32 strikeouts in 24 innings.
Lee's Thomas Zazzaro was the GSC freshman of the week after his complete-game pitching win last Saturday that locked up a spot for the Flames in the league tournament. They play Montevallo at 6 p.m. Saturday in Cleveland, Miss.