Dalton State wins SSAC title

No. 2 seed Dalton State won the Southern States men’s basketball tournament Saturday night in Montgomery, Ala., with a 90-80 defeat of top-seeded William Carey. Both already were set for the 80th NAIA Division I tournament March 15-21 in Kansas City, Mo. DSC is 27-4 and ranked third in NAIA Division I.

› No. 2 seed Valdosta State held off third seed Lee University, 64-61, in the Gulf South Conference women’s basketball semifinals Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. That was VSU’s third close win in three meetings with the Lady Flames this season. Erin Walsh, Lindsey Roddy and Abby Bertram scored 11 points apiece and Carrie Cheeks and Haley Cornellison added 10 each for Lee (20-10), Walsh with four steals and Roddy with four assists. For the Lady Blazers (21-9), Sonya Franklin scored 17 points and Kenya Samone’ Dixon had 16 plus 12 rebounds.

› The TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII basketball tournament opens Monday at Walters State in Morristown, Tenn., with Chattanooga State’s women playing at 2 p.m. against Volunteer State, Cleveland State’s Lady Cougars facing Columbia State at 4 and the Cleveland State men taking on Dyersburg State at 8. The women’s winners will play again Tuesday against the top two seeds, Walters and Motlow. Chattanooga State’s men start Wednesday at 8 p.m. against Southwest Tennessee in a quarterfinal.

› Freshman forward Maddie Wright from Boyd-Buchanan played eight minutes and had five rebounds with two points in Belmont University’s 94-64 win over Eastern Kentucky in the Ohio Valley Conference women’s final Saturday in Nashville. The Bruins are 27-5. EKU senior Mariah Massengill from Silverdale Baptist Academy ended her career with 16 points and four assists after providing 11 points and five assists in the quarterfinal defeat of Morehead State and 10 points and four assists in the semifinal win over SIU-Edwardsville.

› The Chattanooga Quarterback Club will not meet this Monday but will resume its noon luncheon meetings on March 13 with Times Free Press columnist Mark Wiedmer talking about NCAA basketball.

BASEBALL

› Lee University won 7-6 and lost 8-0 in its GSC baseball doubleheader Saturday at West Georgia. Nathan Wierzgac homered, singled and drove in three runs in the win for Lee (12-5, 4-4), when Drew Johnson was 3-for-5, Dalton Ney 2-for-2 and Peyton Meeker 2-for-3, each with an RBI.

› Cleveland State won 5-2 and 2-0 in TCCAA baseball Saturday at Roane State, as Corey Linz pitched a two-hitter after Jake Rogers’ and Greg Tye’s combined six-hitter with 10 strikeouts. Devon Gardner, John Hennen and Billy Brand each doubled and singled and Gardner and Hennen scored the runs in the second game for the Cougars (103, 2-1). Hennen and Sean McDermott each was 2-for-4 with a run in game one, when Brett Browning was 1-for-2 with a double and scored twice. Chattanooga State won 4-1 and lost 5-4 at Motlow State.

› Trey Akins was 7-for-9 with a grand slam, three doubles and seven total RBIs and Jared Demkowicz homered in each game as Sewanee beat visiting Earlham 6-2 and 12-11. Beau Allen had two hits and two runs in the first game for the Tigers (6-7), when Drew Mancuso pitched a three-hitter with eight strikeouts, and Mancuso had two hits and scored three runs while Max Murray was 4-for-5 and Demokowicz, Riley Brandvold and Ryan Poole had two RBIs each in the finale.

› Maryville College pulled out two one-run USA South wins Saturday at Covenant, 5-4 and 6-5. Devin Cerrato was 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and three RBIs in the first loss for Covenant (6-9, 1-5), and he and Lewis Saunders each scored two runs. Joel Johnson was 2-for-3 with two RBIs in game two, and Forrest Hunter was 5-for-8 for the day. Also, Covenant turned the first triple play in progam history in the seventh inning of game one.

› Trevor Behrent was 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs and Wade Weinburger was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer as Bryan opened an AAC home doubleheader with a 9-0 win over St. Andrews, and both homered again along with C.J. Owens as the Lions (165, 3-0) added a 9-8 victory. Weinburger was 1-for-2 with three RBIs and Justin Morhardt was 2-for-3 with an RBI in the second game. Fernando Garcia was 2-for-3 with a triple and two runs scored in game one.