 Tennis and Golf
The Tennessee Tech men's tennis team lost only their fifth match of the season, but it
was a costly one as the Golden Eagles fell, 4-3, to Jacksonville State in the semi-finals of the OVC tournament. Tech finishes
the season 18-5 and 9-0 in league.
Tech looks to advance senior Borja Zarco to the NCAA Tournament as a singles player as he is currently
ranked No. 100 and owns a 27-3 singles record on the season.
Tech got things started slowly as JSU took two of the three
doubles matches to grab the important doubles point. But the Golden Eagles came back strong and built up 3-2 lead with wins
from senior Tiago Gilioli and freshmen Dean O'Brien and Giovanni Vaglietti.
Zarco and fellow senior Juan Pablo Gomez split each of their respective first sets. However, they were
unable to carry the momentum as both fell in the final sets 6-4 with strong comebacks each.
Junior Calvin Clark finished play Tuesday with an 81 and wound up tied for 25th
place at 234, third on the individual leaderboard for the Golden Eagles. Two shots back in 31st place was sophomore Wes Korth,
who fashioned Tech's lowest round of the tournament with a 74 to close play. Sophomore Jake Heatherly was Tech's fifth entry in the tournament, finishing in a
tie for 36th place at 240 after shooting a closing round of 77.
Murray State's Nick Newcomb won medalist honors
by one stroke (216) over Phil Hendrickson of EKU. Newcomb was named the Tournament MVP, while Hendrickson earned Player of
the Year honors. Also on the all-tournament were Grant Leaver of Austin Peay, and EKU's Jesse Massie and Ryan Britt.
Golf
All-conference players Barrett Steakley and John Fox were the team's top finishers and
Tennessee Tech scored its best round of the tournament Tuesday to finish in fifth place at the 2008 Ohio Valley Conference
Championships, a 10-team gathering at the Country Club of Paducah.
Steakley, a senior from Cookeville, carded a
77 in the final round of his collegiate career and wound up tied for 13th place in the tournament at 229. He was named Sunday
as a first-team all-OVC honoree.
Fox, a junior from Clinton, Tenn., was named second-team all-OVC on Sunday and on Tuesday
he posted the team's second-best score with a 75, closing the year strong by shooting one-under over the final nine holes..
He placed 14th overall at 230.
The Golden Eagles posted a team total of 303, their best 18-hole score of the three-day
tournament. That score was good, but not quite enough to prevent red-hot Jacksonville State from jumping past Tech into fourth
place. The Gamecocks shot a one-under 287 Tuesday to finish at 918, four shots ahead of Tech.
Eastern Kentucky,
which took most of the drama out of the event by racing out to a 17-stroke lead on the first day, cruised to the team title
with an 874, 19 shots ahead of runnerup Murray State at 893. Austin Peay finished third at 909. JSU wound up at 918.
Folliowing Tech's 922 in the standings, UT Martin was in sixth place, four strokes behind the Golden Eagles (926). After
that it was Samford and Eastern Illinois (934) tied for seventh, Tennessee State (957) ninth and Morehead State (976) in 10th
place.
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Football
They've got it. They've REALLY got it.
The Tennessee Tech defense, which has spent the entire spring trying to learn a brand new system, showed Saturday
afternoon that they've finally figured it out.
The defense came up with most of the big plays during a sunny,
80-play scrimmage in Tucker Stadium -- including six turnovers -- as the Golden Eagles finished spring drills with an enthusiastic
workout.
"We really stress being aggressive and forcing turnovers with this system," said new defensive
coordinator Billy Taylor.
Tyler Vaden, a walk-on freshman from Gordonsville,
had two of the team's five interceptions, including one that he returned 49 yards for a touchdown.
Geral Harlan, a redshirt freshman from Cookeville, also forced two turnovers,
claiming a fumble recovery and an interception. Corey Watson, another redshirt freshman, had an interception that he returned
39 yards to the one-yard line. The final turnover came on an interception by junior Nick Goodwin.
"We were last in the conference in turnovers
last year, and we hadn't been getting any turnovers this spring, so this was good for our confidence today," Brown
said.
"As a head coach, you can never be happy," Brown said. "One side does a good job like the
defense did today, and you get upset at the other side. We teach our kids to be in the right place and do your assignment,
and you'll make plays."
The turnovers were only part of the story as the defense came up with several
other big plays. Charlie Seivers had a quarterback sack, Tyler York had a quarterback hurry,
Brandon Harris and Corbin Miles each knocked down a pass, Goodwin had a tackle-for-loss in addition
to his interception, Tate Richardson earned a quarterback sack, and McMinnville's Cody Spivey, a walk-on transfer from
Chattanooga, came up with a big stop on fourth-and-goal on the final play of the day.
That's not to say that
the defense dominated play - the offense still produced four touchdowns and 427 yards, including 308 yard snad three touchdowns
through the air and 119 yards and one touchdown on the ground.
Junior quarterback Lee Sweeney was 13-for-20 for 144 yards and one touchdown, while suffering
three interceptions, while directing the No. 1 offense. He threw an eight-yard pass to redshirt freshman Seth Hudson who took it to the end zone.
Senior quarterback Josh Lowery, working with the No. 2 unit, went 15-for-23 for 164 yards with
two touchdown passes and two interceptions. He opened the scoring with a 22-yard TD pass to Matt Solima, and also threw a
23-yard scoring strike to Josh Paz.
The other touchdown came on a five-yard run by Henry Sailes, who finished the day with 92 all-purpose yards in 10 plays.
He had six catches for 67 yards and rushed four times for 25 yards.
Cass Barnes, moved from quarterback to receiver, had two carries for 23
yards and caught three passes for 39 yards. Ten other receivers had catches in the game, topped by Raymond Coleman with three catches for a game-best 57 yards. Coleman also had
21 rushing yards in five carries.
Seth Hudson had four catches for 16 yards, while Paz (34 yards), Alan
Hire (17 yards), Julian Goins (16) and Reggie Simmons (18 ) had two catches apiece.
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Baseball
The Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles made a late charge, scoring 10 runs in the last four innings,
in a 13-3 non-conference victory over the Belmont Bruins on Tuesday evening in Greer Stadium.
Golden Eagle second
baseman Matt Mihoci hit 3-for-4 on the evening and drove in five runs over four
different plate appearances.
Matt Kearney, Tech's second of four pitchers on the mound against Belmont,
broke a Golden Eagle record as he made his 71st career pitching appearance.
The Golden Eagles head to Huntsville,
Ala., for a neutral-site game against Alabama A&M Wednesday at noon.
Mihoci began making an impact for the
Golden Eagles from his first meeting at the plate. Mihoci batted in his first run in the second inning as he doubled down
the right field line and then scored himself on a passed ball. Mihoci scored the first of Tech's 10-run rally by knocking
a short single to center field in the sixth inning. A sacrifice fly by Mihoci gave the Golden Eagles their only seventh inning
run, and another hit to centerfield in the Golden Eagles' 10-batter eighth inning marked the final two RBI for the Tech
second baseman.
Catcher Tate McMillan and left fielder Chad Oberacker both made significant offensive contributions, as well. McMillan
hit 3-for-5 on the evening, scored himself twice and made a smart choice at the plate as an eighth-inning walk gave Tech the
second run of the frame.
Oberacker's ground out in the first inning gave Jake New the opportunity to mark the early run. Oberacker made his impact
hit as his single to center field scored the final two runs in the sixth inning.
Pitcher Ryan Dennick earned the win in Tech's victory over the Bruins as Dennick
made his first starting appearance for the Golden Eagles. Dennick allowed one run and two walks while striking out two in
his five innings on the mound.
Tech's relievers also pitched well against the Bruins. Kearney's record-breaking
appearance left him with two runs off three hits in two innings of work. Jake Edwards made his first relief appearance, striking out two of his three
outs of work in the eighth inning. Evan Dyer allowed just one hit in the ninth inning, but closed the game
with a scoreless final frame.
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