by Spencer Boehme | Mar 28, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb took down the eighth-best college baseball team in the country Tuesday night. In a neutral-site game played at the minor-league First Tennessee Park, the Bisons (11-13) used a three-run triple and impeccable bullpen pitching to take down the No. 8 Vanderbilt Commodores (17-9) by a final score of 5-1. “Any win at any time is so vital,” Lipscomb’s coach Jeff Forehand said. “But everybody knows the caliber of team that we were playing. And when you play one of the best teams in the country and you come out on top, it does give your team a boost.” The three-run hit in the fifth, courtesy of junior first-baseman Cade Sorrells, propelled Lipscomb headfirst towards victory, but there were other small details that helped Lipscomb keep momentum in their favor as well. In the third inning, junior left-fielder Tevin Symonette jumped and bounced off of the fence while he caught a fly ball to help keep the game tied at zero. “I think it helped us set the tempo of how the game was going to go,” Forehand said of the catch. Starting junior pitcher Kyle Kemp put in an odd performance for Lipscomb in four innings. On one end, he allowed no hits, struck out three, and allowed one run on a sacrifice fly. On the flipside, he posted seven walks, dragging innings out much longer than they needed to go. “To say I’m concerned about it, no, because it didn’t hurt us,” Forehand said. He also called Kemp “a strikeout guy.” The Commodores took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly from...
by Olivia Banks | Mar 23, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Imagine having a plan for your life and then one day it’s interrupted and you’re told you’ll never be able to do what you love again. Freshman Lindsey Marriott went from competing nationally in cross-country races and track events to having her whole life thrown off course after a brain aneurysm rupture at 16 years old. Marriott started running at a young age and instantly became passionate about it. Her career officially began on the middle school track team. Her coaches noticed her skill for the sport and advised her to look for additional coaching and teams outside of the school team, so she got started with a national team. She continued to compete on the national team in high school, but also ran for her school. She qualified for state competitions in cross-country and outdoor track her freshman year and broke many of her school’s records. Marriott’s sophomore season was a career year. She was getting a personal record at every race, qualified for state, and got 10th place overall in the USATF Junior Olympic meet. Nineteen days after her success in the USATF Junior Olympic meet, she was celebrating her birthday in Disney World when she collapsed while walking due to a brain aneurysm rupture. She was rushed to the emergency room where she remained in a medically-induced coma for 16 days. After 10 days in the hospital, the staff decided that they were going to take Marriott out of the coma. When this happened, her right lung collapsed and she went “code blue”. She remained in the hospital for 9 more days until she was able to...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 20, 2018 | News Slider, Opinion, Sports
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Season-ending losses are typically filled with tears and disappointment, frustration of what could have been had a certain play or shot fallen differently. But when Lipscomb lost to North Carolina by a score of 84-66 in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament on Friday, it didn’t bring the type of shock that usually comes in March. Yes, there were a few hung heads and some tears from the Bisons, who had hoped to pull an upset against the defending national champions. However, when the team returned to their Holiday Inn in uptown Charlotte, the lobby wasn’t filled with sadness. Seniors Aaron Korn and George Brammeier were seen hugging family members. Rob Marberry took a seat on a couch to talk with friends, sporting a bruise after taking an elbow to the face early in the game. Other players opted to get up to their rooms and pack for the team’s charter flight back to Nashville. Junior forward Eli Pepper leaned over to me and said, “We’ll be back…just need to put together a 40-minute performance next year.” There were no signs of a crushing defeat. How could anyone be overly upset? The Bisons won their first-ever ASUN tournament title and stood their ground in their March Madness debut. “It’s an honor just to be part of this Lipscomb basketball team and what the program has become,” sophomore guard Kenny Cooper said. “(Making) our first tournament and being part of (the Big Dance) exceeded our expectations.” Sure, it’s cliché to say that one loss doesn’t define an otherwise successful season, or to call the team...
by Spencer Boehme | Mar 19, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
The Bisons relied on quality pitching and a seventh-inning-lead-changing home run to cap off their weekend, winning one-of-three against UNC Greensboro. The Lipscomb Bisons (9-11) began the weekend series against the UNCG Spartans (14-5) with a 9-3 loss on Friday and a 13-9 loss the following day. This came after an 8-7 loss at Belmont earlier in the week. But things finally worked out on Sunday. “Today we got in striking distance in the sixth inning,” Lipscomb coach Jeff Forehand said. “It took us a while, and Tevin had the big homer.” In the Friday contest, Spartans junior pitcher Matt Frisbee stayed in the game for all nine innings, allowing only four hits and striking out 13 hitters. The Saturday game lasted for 13 innings, with the Spartans outscoring Lipscomb 6-2 in the last inning. On Sunday, junior left fielder Tevin Symonette broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh with his first home run of the season. The Bisons won 3-2. Starting freshman pitcher Noah Thompson allowed six hits and two runs. “With every start, he’s becoming more and more poised out there,” Forehand said. “Still a freshman, but after a few more starts he’s going to be seasoned, and we won’t be calling him a freshman anymore.” The Lipscomb outfield also played remarkably well. The Spartans could never seem to hit the ball in the right spot. Thompson himself only pitched one strikeout. UNCG got things started in the top of the second with a home run from senior left fielder Dillon Stewart to give the Spartans the early 1-0 lead. In the top of...
by Cole Gray | Mar 16, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the school’s very first NCAA Tournament appearance, Lipscomb hung around with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, but eventually fell 84-66 to the reigning NCAA champions. “Everybody knows it takes a magical night for somebody like us to beat somebody like them,” coach Casey Alexander said following the game. “And we didn’t do that, so we were playing uphill all night.” Lipscomb led the 2017 champs as late as the under-four timeout in the first half. Junior Garrison Mathews struggled with UNC’s Theo Pinson, who said he wanted to “make everything tough” on the ASUN’s leading scorer. “We knew we couldn’t support that much on him,” Pinson said. “Once he gets going, he gets going.” Pinson held Mathews to eight points on three-for-14 shooting. But even though the Bisons didn’t get Mathews’ best night, they looked the part of Cinderella for most of the first half. Kenny Cooper scored the first basket in Lipscomb tournament history on a three from the right wing. Mathews got on the board with an and-one layup in transition. Then a trio of Tar Heel turnovers and threes from Michael Buckland and Eli Pepper gave Lipscomb a 12-9 lead at the under-16 timeout. Marberry missed a pair of layups that would’ve extended the lead further. Mathews and Marberry shot two-for-seven each in the half. But North Carolina kept scuffling and the Bisons held the lead until Heels star forward Luke Maye’s three made it 25-23 Tar Heels. When Williams dropped in a three on the next possession, the majority-Carolina crowd erupted, and UNC seemed poised to make a run...
by Erin Franklin | Mar 16, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
CHARLOTTE, NC – The Lipscomb Bisons will take on North Carolina’s Tar Heels in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte tomorrow afternoon. Tipoff is set for 1:45 p.m. CT. To watch the game, fans can tune in to CBS tomorrow. No. 15 seed Lipscomb is playing in the tournament for the first time in school history, after winning the ASUN Conference Title over FGCU in the final, 108-96, in Fort Myers, Florida, to earn an automatic bid to the tournament.. The No. 2 seed Tar Heels are defending national champions, defeating Gonzaga 71-65 in the 2017 final. UNC has won six NCAA Championships in 49 appearances but are coming off a loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship to No. 1 seed University of Virginia. “We’re not going to be better than North Carolina overall,” coach Casey Alexander said on Sunday after the selection show held in Allen Arena. “We’ve just got to be better than North Carolina in one 40-minute game.” Photo courtesy of Lipscomb...
