Chattanooga State shortstop and pitcher Noah Fitzgerald is a 2019 National Junior College Athletic Association Division I third-team baseball All-American. The Tennessee Community College Athletic Association player of the year, Fitzgerald had a region-high .470 batting average in his second Tigers season, with a .522 on-base percentage and a .705 slugging percentage, and he made 14 pitching appearances with eight saves, a 1.46 ERA and a rate of 10.95 strikeouts per nine innings. In 46 games, he had 78 hits, six home runs, two triples, 17 doubles, 12 walks, 14 stolen bases, 56 runs scored and 57 batted in. His batting average was the fifth-best nationally, and his saves total was 11th. "I can't say enough about the season that Noah had this year," Tigers coach Greg Dennis said. "Not only was he exceptional at the plate, but he made only nine errors in 46 games at shortstop. Coming off of a .276 average last year, he increased it by almost 200 points and added excellent power and clutch ability all of the time. He is moving on to the University of South Alabama, where he will continue doing exceptional things, I have no doubt."
Fishing
» Rising freshmen Andon Goins and Blake Wheat from the Rhea County Eagle Anglers fished their first high school bass tournament Wednesday on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky - and won it by nearly four pounds. Teams from Warren County and Whitwell finished second and fifth in the Bassmaster High School Wild Card with two boats from Kentucky's Montgomery County High in between. The top 11 qualified for the Bassmaster High School Championship national tournament Aug. 8-10 on Kentucky Lake. The 14-year-old winners had a 6-pound-3-ounce whopper in their five-bass limit totaling 18-3. "We caught them in 50 to 70 feet of water" around two marinas, Wheat said in a B.A.S.S. release. Their bites came mostly from about six feet under the surface. Warren County's Asa Robertson and Matthew Vandagriff had a 14-6 haul; it was 13-6 for Whitwell's Drake Hemby and Gavin Totherow.