Point tops TWU for the AAC title

Fourth-seeded Point University beat both regular-season champions Saturday in Kingsport, Tenn., to win the Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball tournament and an automatic spot in the NAIA national opening round. After topping ninth-ranked Bryan 7-4, the Skyhawks edged No. 19 Tennessee Wesleyan 6-5 in 16 innings. Point (33-23) won five games in a 49-hour span, and the last of those was the equivalent of almost two games.

Mario Archibold was 3-for-5 with two home runs and three RBIs and Dayton Cook also had three hits for Point in the final, after Cook was 3-for-4 with two homers, three RBIs and three runs scored and Carnegy Calzado was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs against Bryan (40-15). The Lions’ Trevor Behrent was 1-for-2 with two runs and an RBI, while

Wade Weinburger had two hits and an RBI,

Fernando Garcia had an RBI double and

Jacob Justice was 2-for-4. For TWU (37-19),

Alfred Cruz was 4-for-6 with a homer and two RBIs and Grant Lang was 4-for-7 with a double and an RBI.

› The scheduled first day of the Gulf South Conference baseball tournament at Cleveland, Miss., was rained out Saturday, so Lee University now plays Montevallo at 6 EDT tonight, West Florida at 11 a.m. Monday and West Georgia on Tuesday.

SOFTBALL

› Lee’s softball season ended at 28-28 when the GSC tournament was stopped Saturday by rain in Florence, Ala. Host North Alabama and Valdosta State were declared co-champions and UNA got the GSC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division II nationals. Lee was 1-1 in the tournament.

› The University of North Georgia is ranked No. 1 in Division II and is 56-2 after breezing to the Peach Belt tournament championship in Dahlonega with two 8-0 wins and a 4-0 defeat Saturday of Columbus State, and catcher Shelby Hammontree from Heritage High School made the all-tournament team and is one of the Nighthawks’ three All-PBC first-team players. In the tournament she was 3-for-3 with a two-run double and two runs scored against Georgia Southwestern, 1-for-3 against Landers and 1-for-2 with a two-run homer against CSU.

› The annual UTC softball appreciation dinner is set for Monday in the Stadium Club at Finley Stadium, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $15 and will be available at the door.

FISHING

› Wesley Strader from Spring City moved up to 11th in the Bassmaster Elite tournament on Kentucky Lake with a limit totaling 17 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday for a two-day 37-3. John Murray of Spring City was 22nd with 34-9, and Jacob Wheeler of Harrison was 30th at 33-12 going into the final day. Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif., led by nearly five pounds at 45-5.

RUNNING

› Youth and the Faudi family from Soddy-Daisy ruled the Market Street Mile road race Saturday morning in downtown Chattanooga. Chase Faudi, 16, was the overall winner in 4 minutes, 35.54 seconds, and 12-yearold Hannah Faudi was the fastest female in 5:38.54. She was 22nd overall, just ahead of Madeline Wheatcroft, 14, and Stephanie Maurer, 30. Second through fifth overall were Kaigen Mulkey, 16 (4:43.89; Jonathan Boyd, 18 (4:44.73); Jether English, 25 (4:44.92); and Zachary Faudi, 18 (4:55.11). Ken Curran, 27, and Matthew Broussard, 18, also beat five minutes.

GOLF

› A funeral service will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at St. Therese Catholic Church in Cleveland for Chuck Jabaley, for whom the Tennessee Golf Association’s Senior Match Play trophy is named. A gathering of family and friends will follow at the Cleveland Country Club. Golf was just one of many areas of accomplishment for Jabaley, who had lived the past 10 years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Among many golf titles, he won the Atlanta Athletic Club’s club championship in 1992, and he was a member of the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame.

GENERAL

› The Lookout Mountain Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held today at 3 p.m. in the Lookout Mountain School gymnasium. The 2018 inductees are Caroline Caulkins Bentley, Kappie Clark Boles, B.B. Branton, Elisabeth Donnovin, Lee Dyer, Pem Guerry, Schaack Van Deusen and Jack Webb. Refreshments will be served before the ceremony.

› Covenant College sophomore soccer player Colby Pepper recently was appointed to the NCAA’s Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The committee includes one athlete from each of two paired conferences — in Pepper’s case the USA South and the Southern Athletic Association, until January 2021. There are 24 in all.