Top seed Arkansas downs UTC golfers

Friday, January 1, 1904

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Top-seeded Arkansas beat the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's golf team 5-0 in the semifinals Monday of the Collegiate Match Play presented by Callaway. Three of the Razorbacks' wins were 1 up against the team that beat Oklahoma State on Sunday. In a matchup of Ben Hogan Award candidates, Ethan Tracy edged UTC senior Stephan Jaeger 1 up after taking the lead on the 16th, and Kolton Crawford got past Liam Johnston on the final hole of their seesaw match. The Mocs' Chris Robb fell four holes down to Thomas Sorensen but got even on their 17th hole before falling. Austin Cook won 4 and 2 over Benni Weilguni, and Steven Fox lost 4 and 3 to Sebastian Cappelen.

  • Lee University's JB Eksteen and Courtney Shelton were named Southern States Athletic Conference golfers of the week for their play in a tournament Lee hosted last week. Eksteen shot back-to-back 67s for a nine-stroke individual win as the Flames finished second to Tennessee Wesleyan. Shelton led a dominant first-place showing for the Lady Flames with a 158 that beat teammate and runner-up Geandra Almeida by three strokes. That was the third medalist honor in this school year for the sophomore.
  • Sarah Dolmovich, who helped Signal Mountain win three straight Class A/AA state high school golf championships, has signed papers to continue her career at Birmingham-Southern College. The Panthers are an NCAA Division III team, which appealed to Dolmovich. "After talking to a lot of coaches, I chose against playing Division I because I wanted to be able to continue to play basketball and have more free time, but still advance my game," said Dolmovich, who finished third individually in the state tournament last fall. "As a freshman there, I'll be able to play all 10 tournaments, I'll do work in graphic design and maybe get involved in Greek life."

Softball

  • UTC freshman Taylor Deason was chosen the Southern Conference softball pitcher of the week for the second time this season after going 2-2 with a 2.32 earned run average in March 13-18 games. Her losses were to Florida State and Illinois in Clearwater, Fla., and she had a two-hit shutout against Canisius. She leads the SoCon with 11 wins and 102 innings pitched. The Lady Mocs play a league series this weekend at Appalachian State.
  • Sydney Howell hit a three-run home run in the first game and a two-run shot in the second, but her Cleveland State softball team lost 6-3 and 3-2 in TCCAA play Saturday at Walters State.
  • AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Former Ridgeland High School player Caitlyn Lance homered and Bri Shoemake from Ooltewah also had an RBI hit for Carson-Newman's softball team in the first game of a nonconference doubleheader Monday at Augusta State, but that is all the scoring the Lady Eagles (19-13) got in losing 3-2 and 8-0. Lance and Jessica Morgan from Ooltewah each was 1-for-2 in game two -- Carson-Newman's only hits.

Baseball

  • Lee University junior left-hander Patrick Merkling was the SSAC baseball pitcher of the week after his four-hit, 10-strikeout performance Saturday at Shorter University. Now 6-0 with a 0.95 earned run average and 58 strikeouts in 38 innings, he follows teammate Kris Hall as the league's pitcher of the week. Merkling, an Atlanta resident, came to the Flames from Chattanooga State. Lee (29-4-1) defeated Freed-Hardeman 5-2 on Monday as Roberto Reyes and Roberto Duran drove in two runs each and Reyes, Blake Barber and Corey Davis each had two hits. Barber, who was 2-for-3, is batting .486; Reyes and Davis are hitting .368 and .364. Pitchers Dustin Lawson, Kyle Briner and Andy Hillis gave up seven hits.
  • Brandon Davis was 3-for-3 with three home runs and seven RBIs as the Tennessee Temple University baseball team beat Maranatha Bible College 18-2 Monday at Signal Mountain High School. Dustin Stowers was 3-for-5 with a grand slam and six RBIs and Jon Clayton was 3-for-5 with a double and three RBIs for Temple (8-19-1), which hosts Berry today and Maranatha on Wednesday at AT&T Field. Bryan Burnette pitched a no-hitter into the sixth inning, when he left after giving up one hit and no earned runs.
  • AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- Union College of New York edged Sewanee 5-3 in the Russ-Matt Invitational baseball tournament Monday. Ryne Sullivan tripled in a run and scored on Jack Rogers' sacrifice fly to give Sewanee a 2-0 lead in the third inning, and Allen Thigpen had a tying triple in the top of the seventh. Sullivan was 3-for-5 and Alan Komorowski and Nate Barnett had two hits each in defeat, and pitchers Marshall Ussery and Austin Shea struck out 10 Union batters.

Lacrosse

  • Colorado College freshman attack player Bennett Krishock from McCallie School was chosen as the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's lacrosse player of the week for his three goals and three assists against the University of Dallas. They were the first points of his college career. He also collected four ground balls in the 17-2 league win.