TSWA honors college players of the week - March 13

March 13, 2024 Forrest Freeman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech’s Tanner Shiver came through with several clutch at-bats this past week, including two walk-off base hits as the Maryville native earned this week’s nod for the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Baseball Player of the Week.

The junior Shiver played third base and right field this past week, leading the Golden Eagles to four victories as he hit .471, had a .550 on-base percentage and a 1.118 slugging percentage, collecting eight hits, six runs scored, a triple, three home runs, eight RBI and a stolen base.

Against Alabama A&M, Shiver hit his first home run of the season with a 2-for-4 day in a seven-inning run-ruled game against the Bulldogs, then went 2-for-2 with two home runs and three runs scored in the weekend opener against Queens.

In the second game, Shiver gave Tech an early lead with a three-run triple, then provided the walk-off base hit in the bottom of the 10th. He had final at-bat heroics again in the finale as he hit an RBI single to center field in the bottom of the ninth for another walk-off hit.

On the bump, Vanderbilt junior lefty Devin Futrell earned the pitcher of the week nod as he collected the first complete game shutout by a Southeastern Conference pitcher this season, leading the Commodores to a Sunday victory over Illinois State to complete the three-game sweep.

Futrell, a native of Pembroke Pines, Fla., went the full nine innings, yielding just five hits and struck out seven. He carried a no-hit bid into the final out of the fifth inning and did not allow a walk.

He currently has a 2-0 record this season in four appearances, carrying a 3.68 earned run average.

Over to the softball diamond, Carson-Newman senior utility player Brooke Matyasovsky has been on a tear as of late, knocking out six home runs in her last 16 at-bats. The Eagles went 5-1 for the week behind her bat as she hit .526 (10-for-19) with a .625 on-base percentage and a 1.562 slugging mark. Matyasovsky drove in 13 runs and scored 13 times with 29 total bases.

During the week, the Orange, Conn., native drove in three in an 11-18 win at Coker and an 8-4 win at Southern Wesleyan, then drove in six in a 23-5 win against Wheeling – hitting two home runs in each of those games.

In the circle, Trevecca junior pitcher Ashlan Sensing collected a perfect game in an 8-0 victory over Missouri-St. Louis, adorning her clean sheet with eight strikeouts in the contest, faced 18 batters in six frames of work. The Dickson, Tenn., product needed just 66 pitches to throw the golden goose egg.

For the week, Sensing went 3-1 with three complete games as she recorded a 1.80 ERA over 23 1/3 innings. She struck out 24 batters and had six combined walks and hit batters.

College players of the week named - March 5

March 5, 2024 Forrest Freeman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Jordan Sears helped lead UT Martin to a regular-season title with a big week, cementing his selection as this week’s Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Player of the Week.

Sears averaged 31.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.0 steals with two home victories over Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State. Against the Golden Eagles, Sears had 28 points – 20 in the second half – with seven assists and five boards. Against the Tigers, he helped UTM overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half with 29 of his 34 points in the final 20 minutes.

The Daytona Beach, Fla., native’s assist-turnover ratio was phenomenal with 13 assists to three turnovers in the two contests.

On the women’s basketball side, Carson-Newman’s Braelyn Wykle repeated for the away after a phenomenal performance in her lone game of the week as she dropped 45 points on 15-of-26 shooting, including 13-for-26 from long-range.

The 3-point effort broke Carson-Newman’s single-game record and tied the South Atlantic Conference record. The graduate student from Greeneville, Tenn., also became the Eagles’ single-season record holder for 3-pointers made in a season with 93.

BASEBALL: Vanderbilt’s Camden Kozeal had an incredible week, earning the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Week honor as he helped lead the Commodores to a 5-0 week with victories over Indiana State, Evansville, Louisiana, Houston and No. 15 Texas. For the week, he batted .583 as the Omaha, Nebraska, product went 14-for-24 at the plate, driving in 11 with three doubles and two home runs. He had two 4-for-5 games against the Sycamores and the Longhorns.

On the hill, Belmont right-hander Will Pryor had a strong outing against Little Rock in the Bruins’ 2-1, 10-inning loss to Little Rock as the Whitwell native threw a career-high seven innings and struck out a career-high 11. Pryor struck out five in the first three innings, then had three consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth. He yielded just three hits and two walks in the game as he threw 84 total pitches.

SOFTBALL: Carson-Newman junior infielder Hayden Dye batted .500 for the week as she blasted three home runs and drove in seven to help the Eagles to a 3-1 performance. She drove in three with two home runs in an 8-0 victory over Kentucky State, then three more in an 11-2 win over KSU on another round-tripper. She had 13 total bases on the weekend.

Chattanooga righty Taylor Long went 2-0 on the week, allowing just two hits on the week as she picked up a complete-game one-hit shutout victory in a 5-0 win over Central Arkansas, walking five and striking out eight. The Calhoun, Ga., product earned her second win over the Bears in relief as she pitched the final 4 1/3 frames, allowing one hit and two walks as she struck out seven.

BASEBALL
2/20 | Player: John Bay (Austin Peay); Pitcher: Peyton Calitri (Tennessee Tech)
2/27 | Player: Hayden Gilliland (Tennessee Tech); Pitcher: Andrew Devine (Austin Peay)
3/5 | Player: Camden Kozeal (Vanderbilt); Pitcher: Will Pryor (Belmont)

SOFTBALL
2/20 | Player: Olivia Lipari (Chattanooga); Pitcher: Ashlan Sensing (Trevecca)
2/27 | Player: Zoey Neal (Union); Pitcher: Lainey Baker (Union)
3/5 | Player: Hayden Dye (Carson-Newman); Pitcher: Taylor Long (Chattanooga)

TSWA recognizes college players of the week - Feb. 27

February 27, 2024 Forrest Freeman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – UT Martin’s Jacob Crews averaged a double-double this past week as the junior powered the Skyhawks to two big road victories and earned this week’s Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Player of the Week.

In the two outings this past weekend, Crews, a junior guard/forward from Hilliard, Fla., averaged 29.5 points and 11.5 rebounds, while shooting .633 from the field and .938 from the free-throw line. At Lindenwood, Crews scored 28 points as he was 9-for-14 from the floor and pulled down 12 rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

He followed that performance with 31 points – shooting 10-for-16 – with 11 rebounds at Southeast Missouri.

On the women’s side, Carson-Newman graduate guard Braelyn Wykle went off for two big performances as she could barely miss in two contests, shooting 71.8 percent from the field, 58.8 percent from long-range and 100 percent from the line as she averaged 32.5 points per game.

Against Virginia-Wise, the Greeneville native scored 37 points on 13-of-15 shooting as she knocked down seven of nine 3-point tries and all four free-throw tries while collecting two rebounds, a steal and an assist in the win.

She followed that up on Saturday at Limestone as she added 28 points on a 10-for-17 effort, with three 3-pointers and hitting all five free-throw tries. Wykle also had three rebounds and two steals in the game.

BASEBALL: Tennessee Tech catcher Hayden Gilliland helped keep its six-game winning streak alive at the plate as the Maryville native batted .625 with 10 hits in 16 at-bats with two doubles and a home run while driving in six and coming home to score seven times.

Earlier in the week, Gilliland had a 4-for-4 performance at Alabama A&M, collecting a double, two runs scored and two RBI. He went 4-for-4 again in the series finale Sunday against Sacred Heart as he scored three times with three RBI. He scored in each game of the series against the Pioneers, collecting two doubles and a homer in the series.

Austin Peay redshirt senior pitcher Andrew Devine earned the pitching honor for the week after a tremendous performance in a run-ruled victory over Maryland Eastern Shore. The Simi Valley, Calif., product and Texas Tech transfer threw a complete-game one-hit shutout, striking out 12 over the course of seven innings – the most by an APSU pitcher in a single game since 2019.

Devine improved to 2-0 and allowed just one hit – a one-out double in the first inning. Devine retired eight straight batters before allowing a leadoff walk in the fourth, then sat down the next 12 batters, including seven on strikeouts.

SOFTBALL: Union University swept the two softball awards for the week as junior Zoey Neal was named the player of the week and sophomore Lainey Baker the pitcher of the week.

Neal finished the week hitting 6-for-14 (.429) with three home runs, 14 RBI and five runs scored. The big blow came as she hit a walk-off grand slam in the series finale against Delta State.

Baker threw eight innings, allowing just two runs – one earned – on two hits. She threw a complete-game one-hitter in the series opener, then the final frame in the second game. Across the eight innings of work, Baker struck out 14.

BASEBALL
2/20 | Player: John Bay (Austin Peay); Pitcher: Peyton Calitri (Tennessee Tech)
2/27 | Player: Hayden Gilliland (Tennessee Tech); Pitcher: Andrew Devine (Austin Peay)

SOFTBALL
2/20 | Player: Olivia Lipari (Chattanooga); Pitcher: Ashlan Sensing (Trevecca)
2/27 | Player: Zoey Neal (Union); Pitcher: Lainey Baker (Union)

College players of the week honored - Feb. 20

February 20, 2024 Forrest Freeman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With a packed week of big performances across the state in men’s and women’s basketball, Middle Tennessee’s Jestin Porter and Fisk’s Maya Buckhanon stood above the crowd this week, earning the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Player of the Week honors in men’s and women’s basketball respectively.

On the men’s side, Porter, a junior out of Houston, averaged 33.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists in two victories over UTEP and New Mexico State. Against the Miners, Porter set a Conference USA record, knocking down eight 3-pointers in eight tries and scoring 41 points in the double-overtime victory. Porter finished the game shooting 11-for-16 from the field and 11-for-12 at the free-throw line.

The 41-point total is the third-highest single-game total in Blue Raider history and the most by a Middle Tennessee player since 1965.

He also recorded 26 points, five rebounds and four assists against New Mexico State.

On the women’s side, Buckhanon has been a dominant player all season long, but her effort last week was phenomenal. After recording 37 points on the road at Dillard, the Talladega, Ala., native shattered the Fisk single-game scoring record, was two points shy of the NAIA record and scored the most points by any NAIA women’s player in the 21st century as she scored 60 points against Southern-New Orleans.

In that contest, Buckhanon was 24-for-38 from the field, a 63.2 completion rate, while also hitting 75.0 percent at the line as she knocked down 12-of-16 charity tosses. In her second season at Fisk, she also reached the 1,000-point mark in her career in the contest.

BASEBALL: As the season started on the diamond, Austin Peay redshirt junior outfielder John Bay (Shattuck, Okla.) finished the series against Western Illinois with eight hits – seven for extra bases. The Oklahoma State transfer had five doubles and two home runs as he drove in six. In the second game of the series, Bay had two doubles, two home runs and five RBI as he went 4-for-4 and reached in all five plate appearances. In the third game of the series, he added two more doubles. Bay ended the weekend set reaching in 10 of his 15 plate appearances to record a .667 on-base percentage.

On the mound, Tennessee Tech senior righty Peyton Calitri (Collierville, Tenn.) posted a 0.00 earned run average in the opening weekend as he threw seven innings without an earned run in the Golden Eagles’ 5-1 victory over Bellarmine. Calitri allowed four hits and a walk with an unearned run in the seventh inning. He struck out four as he earned the victory. He used just five pitches to retire the side in the opening frame, then yielded just a single base runner in four of the next five innings, then two in the seventh.

SOFTBALL: Chattanooga junior utility player Olivia Lipari had a great week at home in the Chattanooga Challenge event, leading the Mocs to a 5-0 weekend. The Oviedo, Fla., native batted .636 for the weekend as she went 7-for-11 at the plate with a double, two home runs, six RBI and also drew four walks.

She scored six runs in the five games, including the game-winner in extras against Ball State. She went 2-for-2 in the opener against the Cardinals with a three-run home run, while also collecting a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a stolen base. Against Murray State, Lipari was 1-for-2 with two RBI on a home run.

In the circle, Trevecca junior hurler Ashlan Sensing led the Trojans to a 3-1 performance at the Music City Invitational. In 14 innings of work, Sensing sat her opponents down, striking out 24. Across those frames, she allowed nine hits and just one earned run for a 0.50 ERA, while not walking a single batter.

In a 3-0 victory over Purdue Northwest, she went the distance, allowing five hits and striking out 13. In a tough-luck 1-0 loss to Drury, she pitched all seven, allowing one run on four hits and retired 11 on strikeouts.

BASEBALL
2/20 | Player: John Bay (Austin Peay); Pitcher: Peyton Calitri (Tennessee Tech)

SOFTBALL
2/20 | Player: Olivia Lipari (Chattanooga); Pitcher: Ashlan Sensing (Trevecca)

TSWA names college players of the week - Feb. 13

February 13, 2024 Forrest Freeman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – John Zhao continues to put up big numbers for Carson-Newman and, in this past week, he was electric, leading the Eagles to a pair of victories and earning the nod for the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Men’s Basketball Player of the Week.

Zhao, a junior guard from Sevierville, averaged 28.0 points and 9.0 rebounds as C-N put together two road victories at Mars Hill and Lenoir-Rhyne. Against Lenoir-Rhyne, Zhao had 33 points and eight rebounds as he shot 11-for-15 from the field, including seven 3-pointers, for his fourth 30-point game of his career.

He also recorded his first career double-double in the victory over Mars Hill, collecting 23 points and 10 rebounds.

On the season, Zhao is averaging 20.6 points and 5.1 rebounds.

On the women’s side, Lipscomb junior guard Claira McGowan collected the Women’s Basketball Player of the Week honor after an incredible week, averaging 27 points and 10 rebounds with victories over North Florida and Jacksonville.

McGowan, a Murfreesboro product, set Lipscomb’s NCAA-era single-game scoring record with 37 points in the Bisons’ double-overtime win over North Florida. She also collected her first career double-double against Jacksonville with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

For the week, McGowan shot 55 percent from the floor and 87 percent from the line, while she is currently averaging 15.7 points and 5.5 rebounds in Atlantic Sun play.