by Charlie Bateman | Feb 14, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb baseball team finished the season-opener with a complete sweep against Butler this weekend at Ken Dugan Field at Stephen L. Marsh Stadium. Due to Sunday’s weather forecast, the Bisons played a doubleheader on Saturday. In the first game on Friday, Lipscomb struggled to get hits and was down 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. The Bisons began to rally when sophomore Hunter Hanks got a two-run double. Lipscomb scored an insurance run after hitting a single and piled on three runs in the sixth and seventh innings to win the game 9-3. The Bisons got off to a hot start in the second game, as an error by the Bulldogs’ shortstop led to a three run rally. Lipscomb played small ball, scoring on a sacrifice bunt and hitting three singles in the second inning. Both Lipscomb and Butler’s bullpens blew up, and the score was tied 8-8 in the bottom of the ninth. The bases were loaded as redshirt junior Adam Lee stepped up to the plate. The first pitch thrown by the reliever led to a walk-off, hit-by-pitch for a Bisons win of 9-8. In the final game, Lipscomb started out slowly, scoring one run in the first four innings. The Bulldogs failed to steal home, igniting the Bisons in the bottom of the fifth. Senior Grant Massey started the rally with a run-scoring single. Hanks and senior Mike Korte had doubles that scored two runs each. Freshman Jeffrey Crisan added a run-scoring single, resulting in a six-run inning for Lipscomb. Senior Jonathan Allison provided an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Lipscomb finished out...
by Danielle Kinnen | Feb 13, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb mens basketball team recorded its fifth conference win over the Stetson Hatters with 87-85 on Thursday night in Allen Arena. The slow starting game began as both teams struggled to establish any momentum. After the media timeout the Bisons began to find their feet and gained an assertive lead 43-27 just eight minutes later. The Bisons were able to turn the tables from two weeks earlier, where they found themselves under the pump in the reverse fixture on Jan. 31. The team entered intermission holding a substantial lead 51-37. Lipscomb was en route to a season-best with 51 points at halftime. That gave the Purple and Gold a 14-point cushion at the break, something the Bisons would need as the Hatters would outscore them 48-36 in the final 20 minutes of action. “We need to limit our turnovers, and take better shots,” senior forward Malcolm Smith said. “We have been struggling on defense and I would say that’s something we need to work on going into the next few games.” Smith led Lipscomb with 29 points. Sophomore guard Josh Williams followed just behind with 25 points. “We’ll take the win, but we need to make improvements to make some noise in the conference tournament,” Malcolm said. In previous games, the Bisons have had issues with their offense and defense, but the topic for this game was the team’s poor turnover against the Hatters. “It was almost [a] carbon copy of that previous game, [but] this time it turned out differently,” head coach Casey Alexander said. “It was almost the same game which adds to the frustration.” In this case...
by Brianne Welch | Feb 10, 2015 | Sports
What started out as a fun team bonding activity has turned into a small hand lettering art business for junior volleyball player Molly Spitznagle. “This summer we as a volleyball team had a lot of off time, and we all are here in the summer, so we had this thing called art club,” Spitznagle said. “We would do it and Jewell Dobson and I just kind of stuck to it.” Spitznagle credited senior Jewell Dobson for helping her get started in hand lettering. Once she got her start over the summer, she kept at it, and now does different kinds of lettering on canvases. “A lot of them are like Bible verses or quotes or sayings. I’ve done some name canvases for rooms or something like that, but they’re mostly lettering quotes.” The initial idea didn’t involve making any money, but it slowly turned in to a fundraising outlet to raise money for her yearly mission trip to Honduras. “I wanted to find a way that I could fundraise for myself, and I really enjoy art and painting and lettering and stuff like that, so I thought that I could make money off of canvases,” Spitznagle said. “It’s really popular right now, so it’s kind of expanded from there and blown up.” Now that Spitznagle has raised enough money for her mission trip, she has other plans for the canvases. As an athlete, it is hard for her to find time for a job to make spending money, so she decided to share her talents with the public. “I’ve just kind of tried to make it into a little side...
by Brianne Welch | Feb 9, 2015 | Sports
Leading in to the 2015 season, the Lipscomb Bisons baseball team will focus on the current team and not get caught up on last season’s success. The Bisons made it to the conference championship game in the 2014 season, only to fall short to Kennesaw State, but majority of the team returned with big ambitions for this season. “When you have a team that ended on a little bit of success, and the majority of that team is coming back, there was a little bit of momentum that’s come from the end of last season,” Head Coach Jeff Forehand said about the end of last season. Even though the team finished with more success than they have in past years, they are still not satisfied and want to look to go even further. Forehand mentioned one of the big differences from last year’s team and this year’s is that the 2014 team really had no expectations set for them. “There really was no expectation [last year] because there hadn’t been anything prior to that, that we had done. I think that’s kind of a scary thing, that this year there are a few more expectations,” Forehand said. “Not that we’ve been picked to win or anything like that, but I think people have recognized how we ended and that we’re getting better, so there are some expectations this time.” Forehand said that he wants his team to focus on the present team’s identity. “I guess it is hard to kind of not think about last year since we did come so close, but I mean we got a whole new...
by Erika Thornsberry | Feb 8, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
The Lady Bisons softballl team walked away from the Music City Classic with three wins, but lost 14-2 in the final game this weekend at Draper Diamond at Smith Stadium. In the first game, the Lady Bisons had a 7-1 victory against the University of Missouri–Kansas City. The team took two more wins in the following games, with 8-0 and 9-1. The whole infield is a completely new team except for two players, senior Paige Neely and sophomore Mimi Cartwright, but it didn’t take long to notice the new players. In the first three games, the Lady Bisons had a total of seven home runs, seven doubles and Neely had an impressive batting average of .778. Freshman Abby Fenichel powered two balls over the fence in her first college game, recording three home runs for the weekend. Senior Brianne Welch kept the streak alive with two home runs for the weekend. Senior Gracey Aguirre and freshman Caitlin Plocheck were big power hitters and also contributed with their own home runs. “It helps when you are in a positive environment and when everyone else around you is hitting good,” Fenichel said. “I have been struggling in practice so I just came out there, tried to forget about that and clear my mind, and it just ended up going my way.” Junior pitcher Tanner Sanders took the 7-1 win against UMKC, only giving up one run. Junior Kelly Young pitched a no-hitter against IUPUI with a score of 8-0. The game against IUPUI made for Coach Kristin Ryman’s 300th career win. Her 300th win was a short one, as the Lady Bisons took the...
by Erin Turner | Feb 7, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
Major League Baseball stars Rex Brothers and Caleb Joseph joined the Lipscomb baseball team at the First Pitch Dinner Saturday evening in Allen Arena. After attending Lipscomb, Brothers was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2009. He was the 34th overall pick in the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft. Joseph also attended Lipscomb, leading the Bisons with a .342 batting average during his junior year. Joseph spent six years in the minors before he was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 2014. The two major leaguers, along with members of the 2015 ballclub and coaches, signed autographs before the dinner began. With the 2015 baseball season just around the corner, head coach Jeff Forehand and the team are looking forward to defeating strong contenders such as Kennesaw State. The 2015 season will begin on Feb. 13 with a three-game set against Butler at Dugan Field. Carousel photo by Sam...
