DII-A East District 2 tournament starts
The TSSAA softball postseason begins locally today with the Division II-A East District 2 tournament at Chattanooga Christian. Notre Dame is scheduled to take on Grace Academy in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. The winner will face regular-season champion Silverdale Baptist Academy at 7. In between Boyd-Buchanan plays the host team at 5. Play resumes Saturday morning with the winners of today’s last two games playing at 11. A losers-bracket game is set for 1. Monday’s losers-bracket final and Tuesday’s championship are both scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Second-seeded CCS (14-10) was 2-0 against the Lady Buccaneers in the district regular season but 0-2 against Silverdale — the favorite to be the other team in Saturday’s winners-bracket final. “They are a tough team,” Lady Chargers coach Lisa Gray said of the Lady Seahawks. “Whether it’s Boyd or Silverdale, we’ve got to go out there and try to play our best. We just haven’t done that yet when we’ve played Silverdale. We keep thinking of the things we’ve done wrong, and if we play them again we’ve got to fix that.” The top four teams will join the top four from Knoxville’s District 1 tournament in the East Region tournament scheduled to start May 4. The top four from that will earn state-tournament berths and will play May 8 and 9 at CCS for seeding purposes.
› Kelsey Payne from East Hamilton was 2-for-3 and scored the winning run in the ninth inning as seventh-seeded Brenau edged sixth seed Point 2-1 in the winners bracket of the Appalachian Athletic Conference softball tournament Thursday in Kingsport, Tenn. Payne’s pinch-runner scored the tying run in the seventh after the Chattanoogan’s leadoff single. Payne earlier walked, and Savannah Moore from Soddy-Daisy moved her to second base with sacrifice bunts all three times she got on base. Earlier Thursday, Reinhardt beat top seed Truett McConnell 5-1 and third seed Union (Ky.) eliminated No. 2 seed Tennessee Wesleyan, 2-0. For TWU (27-17), Olivia Housewright was 2-for-3 and Rachel Mathews pitched a three-hitter but was victimized by two unearned runs.
› University of Tennessee at Chattanooga pitching coach Michelle LaCourse will be the guest speaker for a game-day breakfast Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Wally’s restaurant on McCallie Avenue, and the public is invited. Reservations are not needed.
GOLF
› Dalton State sophomore S.M. Lee, the reigning NAIA men’s golfer of the year and a collegiate Palmer Cup United States team member, is the NAIA national men’s player of the week for the second time in a row and the third time this spring. His latest honor is in recognition of his 11-stroke win in the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament.
TRACK & FIELD
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Lee University’s Audrey Smith is the women’s track athlete of the year in the Gulf South Conference after setting three meet records in the league meet last weekend, and Lee’s Caleb Morgan is the GSC women’s coach of the year. He also coaches the Lee men, and Justin Brooks from his Flames is the GSC men’s co-track athlete of the year with Elijah Dryer of Alabama-Huntsville.
› Sewanee’s Ash Midyett and Karagan Day are All-Southern Athletic Association second-team track and field selections for 2018. Midyett was second in the men’s 800meter run in the recent league meet and helped in the thirdplace 4x400 relay, while Day was the women’s javelin runner-up. Sewanee women Tricia Murphy, Kelsie Schiavone, Elizabeth Shackelford and Meredith Stuber earned AllSAA honorable mention, as did Tigers men Letherio Jones, Carter Pettus and Dillon Spann.
BASEBALL
› Sewanee shortstop Trey Akins and Drew Mancuso, picked as a utility player, were first-team All-SAA baseball players for 2018, and freshman pitcher Trey Holland was a second-team choice. Tigers outfielder Jared Demkowicz received honorable mention. Akins led Sewanee with a .364 batting average, and he had three home runs, nine doubles, 22 RBIs and 22 runs scored. Mancuso hit .348 with two homers, 10 doubles and 18 RBIs and was 3-5 with a 4.46 earned run average and four complete games as the No. 1 pitcher in the rotation. Holland had a 3.40 ERA in seven starts. Berry College sophomore Quinn Smith from Rocky Face, Ga., and McCallie School was a second-team pick as a designated hitter. Berry had 10 first- and second-team selections and the coach of the year.
LACROSSE
› Another All-SAA firstteam men’s lacrosse selection besides the ones from Sewanee reported in Wednesday’s Times Free Press was Berry College junior Mckinley Gannon from Ooltewah and McCallie School. Gannon also was Berry’s men’s scholar-athlete of the year.