Chattanooga State sophomore shortstop and pitcher Noah Fitzgerald is the TCCAA baseball player of the year, and fellow Tigers Sean Cheely (outfielder) and Landon Walker (pitcher) are first-team all-conference selections with him. Third baseman Bass Cooper, designated hitter Jacob Holton and second baseman Ty Delancey are All-TCCAA second-team picks along with Cleveland State outfielders Lance Dockery and Tucker Mendenhall. Fitzgerald batted .470 in 2019, sixth-best in NJCAA Division I, with 25 extra-base hits, 57 RBIs, 56 runs and 14 stolen bases, and he had eight saves and a 1.49 ERA.
Tennis
» The 30th-ranked Sewanee women's tennis team lost 5-4 to No. 23 Washington & Lee on Saturday in Atlanta in a second-round match of the NCAA Division III tournament. Catherine Owen at No. 1 and Jordan Besh at No. 3 won in singles to give Sewanee (17-9) a 4-3 edge after Owen won with Ellie Czura and Besh prevailed with Taylor Sprouse in doubles. Washington & Lee (16-7) won No. 2 doubles in a tiebreaker. Owen will play in the national individual tournament in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
» Wesley Cash of Chattanooga and Mark Vines of Naples, Florida, won 6-2, 6-2 on Friday and 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday's men's 60s semifinals of the Atlanta Senior Invitational Championships at the Cherokee Town and Country Club. Friday's victims were Keith Banister of Roswell and Curtis Dashiel of Smyrna, Georgia; Saturday's were third-seeded Timothy Garcia of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Jeffrey Winkler of St. Petersburg, Florida. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumnus Ken Koelling of Matthews, North Carolina, edged top-seeded Vines in a singles semifinal, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
General
» The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was at or above the national averages in eight sports in academic progress rates released this past week by the NCAA, and the other six were above the minimum standard of 930. The APR averages covered the years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18. Men's basketball was the lowest for UTC at 932; all the others were at least 951. The Mocs' plus programs were women's basketball (1000/national average 982), men's tennis (1000/983), volleyball (1000/987), women's cross country (1000/989), men's cross country (993/982), women's track and field (993/983) and women's tennis (991/990), and men's golf (985) was right on the national average.
» Covenant College won the USA South sportsmanship awards for baseball and men's tennis this spring and continued its annual tradition as the overall sportsmanship honoree. The Lookout Mountain school has at least shared the overall award all six years it has been in the league, and previously this academic year it won for volleyball and men's basketball. In each of the 12 USAS-sponsored team sports, every player votes for the opposing team that he or she felt showed the best sportsmanship throughout the season, and the program receiving the most votes win. The school with the most awards for the school year receives the USA South Sportsmanship Trophy. Covenant has won five times for baseball and the past three years for men's tennis.
» McCallie School recently had a mass signing ceremony for 12 athletes moving on to 11 college sports programs spanning the country. Those included seven bound for NCAA Division I teams. Crew participants honored were Jacob Braden to Oregon State, Richmond Coney and Malcolm Grauley to Drexel, Bob Moore to the U.S. Naval Academy and William Bolin to Bates College. Also celebrated were Matthew Warbrick to Virginia for soccer, Max Ransom to Southern Illinois for swimming, Daalen Adderley to Tusculum and Chase Roberts to Transylvania for baseball and Tanner Shulman to Lipscomb, Bradley Ragland to Cornell College in Iowa and Neill Dickey to Sewanee for basketball.
Running
» Sewanee's Ash Midyett finished 21st out of 88 runners in the men's 800-meter run Friday at the North Central College Dr. Keeler Invitational track and field meet in Naperville, Illinois. His 1:53.97 was a personal best and the second-fastest time in Tigers history.
» Cleveland State cross country coach David Kyle got his latest women's signee from his own campus: Jordan Wagers, a 4.0 student who's set to be the sophomore class president. A former Cleveland High School soccer player, she and Kyle both are "very excited" about her new step, they said in a Cleveland State release. "I really enjoy running, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the team," Wagers said. Noted Kyle: "She is a great student-athlete. She will bring her 4.0 GPA to go with my three other freshmen with a 4.0. She is an exceptional young lady, and I know she has the work ethic to be a solid runner for us next season."