UNCG tops UTC in SoCon tourney

The fourth-seeded University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team lost 4-1 to top-seeded host UNC Greensboro in the Southern Conference tournament Thursday and plays third-seeded Furman in the losers bracket today. UTC (26-29) outhit the Spartans (44-11) 6-3 but did not score its run until the sixth inning on a Brook Womack home run, just after UNCG three runs in the bottom of the fifth on two bases-loaded walks and an error. Womack and Emma Sturdivant each was 2-for-3 in defeat. Sixth-seeded East Tennessee State beat second seed Mercer 5-3 in nine innings, and Lauren Lee from Cleveland was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored while Kelsey Chernak from Ooltewah also scored after a single for the Buccaneers.

› Tennessee beat LSU 1-0 in the Southeastern Conference tournament Thursday in Columbia, Mo., with Meghan Gregg’s 17th double of the season driving in fellow AllSEC selection Aubrey Leach and Caylan Arnold throwing the shutout. The fourth-seeded Lady Volunteers (45-11) scored in the bottom of the first inning, then held on with error-free defense against LSU (41-14) as Arnold allowed three hits and a walk and struck out four batters. Tennessee, which received a bye in Wednesday’s opening round, will face top-seeded Florida (48-8) at 5:30 EDT in today’s second semifinal. No. 7 seed Arkansas (39-14) takes on No. 3 seed South Carolina (44-13) in the other semifinal at 3.

TRACK & FIELD

› UTC’s Emily Poole finished fourth in the women’s 10,000-meter run at the Southern Conference track and field meet Thursday in Cullowhee, N.C., and Haley Morris also scored points for the Mocs with a late surge to seventh in the 3000 steeplechase. Abby Bateman was sixth in the 800 preliminaries and will run in the finals, as will Brianna Nelson in the 1500. Samford’s Selena Popp from Baylor School got off to a good start in defense of her conference heptathlon title with 3,304 points in the first four points. The second-place heptathlete has 3,135.

BASKETBALL

› Three Cleveland State men’s basketball players signed letters of intent this week to continue their careers at NCAA Division I and II schools, including Victor Curry with Morgan State and fellow All-TCCAA first-teamer Tevin Olison with Lincoln Memorial, which went 32-2 and was ranked No. 1 in D-II at the end of the regular season. The Cougars’ Cameron Copeland signed with Montevallo in the Gulf South Conference. Curry led the TCCAA and was eighth in the country in rebounding this past season and had 489 rebounds along with 596 points in his two years as a Cougar. Olison scored 837 points, including 104 3-point baskets, and Copeland scored 570 points with 72 3-pointers, 214 assists and 167 rebounds.

BASEBALL

› Nationally No. 1-ranked Walters State polished off a 5-0 run through the TCCAA/ NJCAA Region VII baseball tournament with a 13-2 championship win Thursday over 2017 champion Dyersburg State on the Chattanooga State field. Dyersburg edged Volunteer State 8-7 in the losers-bracket final but got only five hits against the Senators (55-6), who had 15 and scored in each of the first six innings. TCCAA player of the year Austin Henry was 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while Tyler Gentry homered twice and batted in five runs for Walters.

Hunter Wolfe homered and singled, plating three runs, and pitchers Brett Jones and Alex Haynes combined for 11 strikeouts. Haynes had six of those and allowed only hit in his three innings of relief. Spencer Yankle homered and singled for Dyersburg. The Senators will play a best-of-three series at the Georgia champion for a spot in the Junior College World Series.

› Bryan College learned Thursday that not only does have an at-large berth in the NAIA baseball nationals, but the Lions will be the top seed in the Williamsburg (Ky.) opening round series at the University of the Cumberlands.

GOLF

› Dalton State College’s

S.M. Lee was the NAIA Jack Nicklaus golfer of the year in 2017 and was announced Thursday among the five finalists this year. The others are

Alec Dutkowski of Taylor,

Rupert Kaminski of Oklahoma City, Rowan Lester of Texas Wesleyan and Andrew Williamson of Wayland Baptist, and the winner will be announced May 31 and join the Nicklaus honorees from NCAA’s three divisions and the NJCAA in the Barbasol Shootout for an exemption in the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship in July. Lee has a 69.85 stroke average and four tournament wins this year.

› Dalton State senior Caroline Griffin is the Southern States Athletic Conference women’s golf scholar-athlete of the year for the second year in a row. She has a 76.0 stroke average with a tournament win and four all-tournament finishes this year for the thirdranked Lady Roadrunners and has a 3.87 grade point average as a double major that involves chemistry as well as finance and applied economics.

› Sewanee junior Meghan Symonds was named Wednesday night a Division III second-team All-American by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association, and she also was selected for the All-Great Lakes Region team for the second time. She was the medalist in two 2017-18 tournaments and competed this week as an individual in the NCAA national tournament.