Chattanooga State baseball coach Greg Dennis reaches 2 big career milestones

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Chattanooga State baseball coach Greg Dennis reached two big career milestones in the Tigers' doubleheader sweep of nationally 13th-ranked Motlow College on Saturday. Game one was his 400th win in his 11th season with the Tigers, and game two was his 750th junior college victory overall, counting his time in Texas. He admitted they were "exciting to think about afterwards" but gave credit to his players and assistant coaches, past and present. Dennis cited Sheldon Brogden from Notre Dame as the team's player of the week for his second strong TCCAA weekend series in a row -- going 6-for-10 with three RBIs in the three wins over the Bucks -- and gave pitching honors to freshman left-hander Brennan Swindoll, who threw a one-hit shutout against Motlow for his fourth win of the season. Brogden had four hits and five RBIs as the Tigers beat Shorter's junior varsity 10-0 and 14-3 behind pitchers Austin Godwin and then Brandon Smith and Clayton Mason on Monday. Jay Rhoten had two doubles and five RBIs in game one, and he and Tre Lawrence had two hits each in game two.

• Dyersburg State bounced back from a Sunday loss to visiting Cleveland State and beat the Cougars 8-4 and 3-2 in TCCAA baseball Monday. Chris Davis and Cole Baxley had first-game RBIs for Cleveland (11-9, 4-5). Anthony Hunt hit a sacrifice fly and Jammer Strickland had an RBI walk in game two, which ended with a two-run single by the 13-7 Eagles' Taylor Ellis.

• Cody Rhinehart, Kevin Roberts, Justin Morhardt and Grant Zawardzki each had two hits and an RBI and Hunter Tipton and two relief pitchers combined on a four-hitter as the Bryan College baseball team won 8-2 Monday at Hiwassee. Preston King was 2-for-3 and matched Roberts' two runs for the Lions (14-10). Matt Taylor was 2-for-4 with an RBI for Hiwassee.

• Zach Wingate batted in three runs and Jacob Mayfield and David Bourbonnais has two RBIs each as 23rd-ranked Birmingham-Southern (12-2) beat visiting Covenant 10-3 in NCAA Division III baseball Monday. David Lockwood was 3-for-5 and K.C. Simons had two RBIs for Covenant (6-5).

Golf

• The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's golf team is 11th out of 18 teams after Monday's 36 holes in the Cleveland Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate tournament at Aiken, S.C. The Mocs are at 591, six shots out of fourth. Clemson leads by six at 571. UTC's Davis Bunn is tied for 10th individually at 145 after a second-round 70, and Chris Robb shared 20th place at 146 with Liam Johnston tied for 47th at 150.

• Dalton State is fifth out of eight teams after two of the three rounds in the Sand Shark Classic men's golf tournament in South Carolina. DSC's T. Ebner is tied for 14th individually after two 75s, and Levi Nix, Anthony D'Angelo and Tyler Mitchell also are in the top 25 at 152, 153 and 153.

Auto Racing

• Chuck Oran from Kingston, Tenn., won the $1,500 top prize in Super Pro on Saturday at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. He won with a 5.63-second run on a 5.63 dial in a 1993 Corvette Sting Ray with a modified 454 Chevrolet big-block engine. Matt Grayson of Whitwell was second with a 4.69 run on a 4.68 dial. David Bigham of Calhoun, Ga., won the Foot Brake class with a 7.66 run on a 7.66 dial in his 1969 Dodge Dart. Al Baker of Marietta was second. Jake Clayton, age 8, was the Junior Dragster winner with an 8.01 run on an 8.00 dial in a 1-cylinder Briggs-Stratton dragster. Carson Emmett was second.

• Cleveland resident Jimmy Elliott won the Crate Late Model race Saturday night at the Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, leading all 20 laps. Dale McDowell of Chickamauga won the NDRL series Super Late Model race there Friday.

Lacrosse

• Sewanee freshman George Pratt was honored as the Southern Athletic Association men's lacrosse defensive player of the week. He had five groundballs and three caused turnovers in the Tigers' 14-3 win over Trine.

• Katie Riddle had two goals and two assists and Chelsea Staunton also scored two goals for Sewanee in a 14-7 women's lacrosse loss Sunday against visiting Denison (2-0). Crawford made eight saves for the Tigers (5-3).

Basketball

• Freshman Mariah Massengill from Silverdale Baptist Academy had a season-high 12 points as Eastern Kentucky ended its women's basketball season Friday with a 97-45 loss to top-seeded UT-Martin in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament semifinals. She played in all 30 games for EKU (17-13), averaging 12.5 minutes and 2.2 points.