GPS alumna Jackie Baird wins A-Sun honor

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

East Tennessee State junior Jackie Baird from Girls Preparatory School was the Atlantic Sun Conference softball player of the week after batting .647 in three wins at the College of Charleston Classic. She hit the winning home run in the seventh inning against the host Cougars and also had four doubles, drove in four runs and scored three while going 11-for-17. She has reached base in all nine of the Bucs' games this season and has a .577 average with a .633 on-base percentage and .846 slugging percentage.

Swimming

• Senior Susanna Kirby from Baylor School was part of the 400 freestyle relay that completed a final-day Rhodes College surge past Sewanee to second place in the inaugural Southern Athletic Association women's swimming and diving meet Saturday at Birmingham. The Lynx foursome set a school record by six seconds in finishing second to Centre. Earlier, Kirby set a personal best with a sixth-place 200 butterfly finish and Rhodes freshman Mary Portera from GPS won the 3-meter diving event to go with her 1-meter win and seal her designation as SAA diver of the year.

Basketball

• The Appalachian Athletic Conference basketball tournament will tip off Wednesday in Kingsport, Tenn., with three play-in games, the first two involving women's teams. Bryan's Lady Lions (17-11) are seeded fourth and will play at 10:15 a.m. Thursday against fifth seed Reinhardt (16-14). Tennessee Wesleyan's second-seeded Lady Bulldogs (17-10) play at 8:30 that night against the Montreat/St. Andrews winner. Wesleyan's top-seeded men (22-7) also will face Montreat or St. Andrews, at noon Thursday, and the third-seeded Bryan Lions (13-15) take on sixth seed Union College (15-13) at 9:15 p.m. Thursday.

• Hollie German and Jenna Adams had 18 and 16 points and eight and 12 rebounds as the Lee University women's basketball team won 59-50 in a Southern States game Monday evening at Brenau. Last Thursday, Lee retired the jersey of Brooke McKinnon-Evans, who came from Tellico Plains and scored 2,216 points (No. 2 all-time) for Lady Flames teams that went 118-22. The SSAC player of the year in 2011, she now is the director of women's basketball operations at Tennessee Tech. "Brooke is one of the best people you will ever meet and was so important to building our program on the national level," Lee coach Marty Rowe said.

• Making five of eight 3-point tries, Chad Lee had 24 points and 11 rebounds as the Lee men's basketball team, ranked second in NAIA Division I, routed visiting Hiwassee 106-73 in a nonconference game Monday night in Cleveland. Jamorris Gaines and Steve Bennett had 23 and 14 points with eight rebounds apiece for the Flames (26-1), and Will Barnes scored 19 points. Justin Browner scored 19 for Hiwassee.

• Georgia Northwestern won the coin toss with co-champion West Georgia Tech to be the top seed in the NJCAA Region XVII women's basketball tournament this weekend in Warner Robins, and GNTC's Jim Williams was the coach of the year for the third season in a row. His Lady Bobcats will play Southern Crescent Tech at 4 p.m. Saturday. GNTC's Odessa Person was first-team all-region after leading the league with 13 rebounds a game, and Kiarra Parks (from Cleveland, Tenn.) and Alyssa Nichelson were second-teamers with scoring averages of 11 points. The GNTC men open region-tourney play Friday at 5:30 against West Georgia Tech.

Golf

• The UTC women's golfers are in 10th place out of 12 teams after 36 holes of the Central District Invitational at Parrish, Fla. UTC's Mette Kryger shot a 71 in the first round and is tied for 18th at 151, with Emily McLennan, Jordan Britt and Marion Duvernay at 154, 156 and 158.

Baseball

• The Lee University baseball team is 11-2 after beating Rio Grande 14-1 Monday in Cleveland. Karsten Strieby was 3-for-3 with three RBIs, Corey Davis singled and tripled in four runs in the first two innings, Brandon Rader and Josh Silver each had two RBIs and Danny Canela was 3-for-4 for Lee, while Mike Guinane and three relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter.

• Cleveland State's baseball team won 8-5 and 10-3 against the Piedmont junior varsity Monday in Demorest, Ga. Cody Hiefnar singled and homered for three runs in the first game for the Cougars (7-3), who got a tiebreaking three-run triple from Keith Buckhault in the last inning. DeAndre Allen had a two-RBI triple in a six-run second inning in game two. Zach Janes, Evan Speicher and Chase Edwards had RBI singles in that outburst.

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