by Russell Vannozzi | Apr 1, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Belmont basketball coach Rick Byrd is retiring, and it’s not an April Fools’ joke. The longtime Bruin head coach announced the news in a statement posted on the school’s athletics website Monday. “For the past 33 years, it has been my privilege to work with, and for, a remarkable community of men and women at Belmont University,” Byrd said. “Throughout my tenure as men’s basketball coach, our program has received great support from Belmont’s administration, faculty, staff and students. For this, I am forever grateful. “Personally, I have been the beneficiary of a very supportive family that I could count on every single day, a loyal circle of friends who consistently offered encouragement, and a terrific fan base that has embraced our program and our players for over three decades. Most importantly, it has been an honor to coach the young men that have brought credit to Belmont University, not only by how they played the game, but how they represented our university all over our country.” Byrd won his first NCAA tournament game March 19 with a 81-70 victory over Temple in the First Four. The Bruins then lost a 79-77 heartbreaker to Maryland in the second round two days later. The Knoxville native won 805 career games, which ranks 12th all-time among Division I coaches. He served as head coach at Lincoln Memorial and Maryville College before spending 33 seasons as the Belmont skipper. He transitioned the program from NAIA to NCAA Division I in the late 1990s and helped it rise to national prominence. Under Byrd’s leadership, the Bruins made eight NCAA tournament appearances in the last 14 years....
by Grant Ledgister | Apr 1, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Bisons (14-12, 3-3 ASUN) swept Kennesaw State with a 13-2 victory at Ken Dugan Field Sunday. The game got off to a hot start for Lipscomb, as the Bisons hit four RBIs to take a quick 4-0 lead in the second inning. First baseman Cade Sorrells started the scoring spree by hitting a single that allowed a runner to advance to third base and then score on the next at-bat. But the scoring did not stop there. Third baseman Zeke Dodson launched a home run over the left field wall to start off the bottom of the third inning, and the Bisons added four more runs in the fifth, three in the sixth and one in the eighth. Senior pitcher Joshua Colon earned his first win of the season, throwing four of Lipscomb’s seven scoreless innings. Kennesaw State rotated through pitchers Jake McLinskey, Monty Horn and Devenir McCray by the end the fifth. Sorrells (3-for-5), Haddon Adams (3-for-4), Brian Moore (2-for-3) and Chris Bashlor (2-for-3) all had multiple hits for the Bisons. Terrence Norman (2-for-5) and Alex Carballo (2-for-5) had multiple hits for the Owls. Lipscomb’s defense played well, employing a bend-but-don’t-break strategy. The Owls had the bases loaded, but the Bisons were able to get the outs they needed to escape the inning without much damage. By the middle of end of the fifth inning, the Owls had stranded more than 10 runners on base and Lipscomb led 5-1. On Friday, the Bisons beat the Owls 6-3 for their first ASUN win of the year. Scoring came in the form of a series of RBI in...
by Martin Baker | Apr 1, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s softball team showcased its talents on the mound and over the plate in a 13-0 victory over UNF on Sunday to clinch the weekend series 2-1. The two teams split the doubleheader on Saturday, with UNF taking game one 8-6 and Lipscomb taking game two 3-1 thanks to a three-run homer from Jenna Pealor in the sixth inning. Lipscomb is now 23-12-1 (3-3 ASUN). North Florida drops to 20-12 (3-3 ASUN). Saturday’s second game marked the first win of the season from the mound for junior Chloe Yeager. “She’s finally back to old Chloe, which is huge,” Lipscomb coach Kristin Ryman said. She followed up the win on Saturday with another on Sunday in a standout performance where she gave up only one hit, walked only one batter and struck out three in the five innings available before the game was ended due to the run rule. The Lipscomb offense started off Sunday’s game strong and appeared to have solved the scoring issues it faced in Saturday’s second game. Hannah DeVault and Pealor shared 5 RBIs in the first two innings, with a sixth coming from Sarah Higgins. “We just really attacked the ball and attacked good pitches from the get-go today,” Ryman said. “We created a little bit of havoc today on the bases, too, with quite a few stolen bases and were able to get a lot of runners in scoring position for those girls in the middle of the order.” The Bisons followed up two strong innings with seven more runs in the third. Although the big hits from DeVault and Pealor put the runs...
by Adrienne Luu | Mar 29, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb men’s tennis suffered a 5-2 loss in their second conference match at the Huston-Marsh-Griffith tennis center against Kennesaw State on Thursday. Due to one of their players’ being ill, the Bisons’ lineup had to be changed, which caused them to make a rough adjustment. “We had a sickness with Jorge Ortegon (player No. 3), so we had to take him out of the lineup, which obviously doesn’t help,” Lipscomb coach Geoff Hernandez said. “But you want your team to be ready to take the chances when they have them.” The Bisons (1-1 ASUN) started the afternoon losing the doubles point against the Owls. In line one for Lipscomb, Victor Chaw and Pablo Caffarena got the job done and defeated Kennesaw’s Drew Lahey and Bryan Triana 6-3. However, the Bisons were unable to win the doubles point in lines two and three, which allowed the Owls to begin the match with a 1-0 lead. “Our one and two, Victor and Pablo, played great in doubles and in singles,” Hernandez said. “The rest of the team did not step up.” In line two, Lipscomb’s Jake Penny and Francesco Tacconi lost 6-3 to Lucas de Torres Curth and Kevin Patel while Pedro Uribe and David Skrabut lost 6-0 to Jack Sorel and Fermin Calvo Barcelo in line three. “Today’s match was not our best performance,” Hernandez said. “It was one of those where our team was divided.” The Bisons were unable to take away the Owls’ lead. Penny, playing in line four, lost 6-1 in both sets to Kennesaw’s Sebastian Osorio, which put the Bisons down 2-0. Chaw gave hope when...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 28, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Garrison Mathews wasn’t ready for his college career to end Wednesday in the NIT quarterfinals at NC State. Instead, the Lipscomb senior dropped a career-high 44 points to lead the Bisons to a 94-93 upset victory over NC State in Reynolds Coliseum. But it was Kenny Cooper that made the game-winning shot, an off-balance jumper with 1.7 seconds remaining. That advanced Lipscomb to the NIT Final Four in New York City. “We’ve won big road games already. We’ve got a lot of experience,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “Every time they came over to the huddle, they thought they were going to win. These guys believe in what they’re doing, they’re performing when their number is called and we got the result we wanted.” The Bisons (28-7) are set to battle Wichita State April 2 at Madison Square Garden. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Mathews set the tone by scoring Lipscomb’s first 11 points, and he didn’t stop there. The senior guard finished the first half with 20 points and added 22 more in the second half. That included eight three-point makes. “My teammates were giving me great passes, great screens,” he said. “They were helping me get open a little bit. It was just nice to get off to a little bit of a start, and it just kept going. NC State guard Torin Dorn nearly kept pace with Mathews and finished with 34 points, 21 of which came in the first half. Junior guard Markell Johnson scored all 19 of his points in the final 20 minutes for the Wolfpack. The contest was...
by Grant Bricker | Mar 28, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The Lady Bisons secured an 8-3 victory over the Tennessee Tech Eagles in their first meet of the season. The in-state, non-conference matchup tonight was played at Lipscomb’s Draper Diamond in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a tale of two pitchers with Lipscomb getting the better end of it.. Lipscomb pitcher Megan Gray started off the game with three strikeouts in-a-row to cap off a very impressive first inning. Then after an uneventful bottom of the first inning, Tennessee Tech took an early lead after Gray gave up a two-run homer to left center. This would pretty much be Gray’s only mishap of the evening as she stayed on the mound for all seven innings. She went on to strikeout an impressive seven batters while only allowing three runs in the process to finish off a stellar performance. As for Tennessee Tech’s pitching, it was almost the opposite. Tech struggled the most in the third inning with three runs allowed. Pitcher Alyssa Arden only lasted four innings before getting pulled, giving up six runs. The Eagles finished off the evening with Kayla Hughes on the mound, who only gave up two runs in two innings. Luckily for the Lady Bisons, it wasn’t long after a home run that they woke up in the third inning. After a strikeout to start the bottom of the second inning, Jenna Pealor hit a nice double to left centerfield to place herself in prime scoring position. Later, after an error on a beautiful line drive from Destinee Brewer, Gladden and Pealor would both score, tying the game up at two to end the...
