TennesseeSportsNet

from Matt Daniels, SID Walters State:

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. – After a crazy beginning of the day that included Middle Georgia State being disqualified due to a technical issue, the NJCAA East Central District Baseball Tournament opened with a 6-3 victory for the Columbia State Chargers.

The Chargers never trailed, as they took an early lead and never looked back in the victory over the Georgia Perimeter Jaguars in the opening round game.

With the win, Columbia State extended their winning streak to eight games and improved to 35-19 on the season. The Chargers will take on Walters State on Friday morning at 11 a.m. with the winner advancing to the championship game.

The loss drops the Jaguars to 37-20 on the season and into an elimination game at 3 p.m. Friday against the loser of the opening game of the day.

The Chargers squandered a chance to score in the first inning after loading the bases with one out, but Georgia Perimeter pitcher Sam Bragg struck out the next two batters to retire the side with no damage done.

Bragg wasn’t as lucky in the second inning. After recording two outs, Caleb Warnimont singled against Bragg and moved to third when Dustin Delgado struck out but reached on a throwing error by the catcher. Wes Neiderland followed with an RBI single, giving Columbia State a 1-0 lead.

The Chargers extended the lead quickly in the top of the third. TJ Diffenderfer ripped a double off the wall in right center and scored on a double to the left center gap by Desi Ammons to make it 2-0.

The Jaguars got on the board in the bottom half of the third and cut the deficit in half. Cody McCance singled to lead off the frame and scored on an error when Pierce Ressmeyer grounded into a fielder’s choice to trim the lead to 2-1.

The Chargers added to their lead in the top of the sixth. Warnimont singled and stole second with one out and scored on an RBI single by Scott Gibson to increase the margin to 3-1.

The Jaguars once again cut into the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Drew Adler reached on a fielder’s choice before Matt Taylor singled and Erik Davis drew a walk to load the bases. Stephen Mason followed with a walk to cut the deficit to 3-2, but they could not get another run across in the frame.

Columbia State pushed runs across in the seventh and eighth innings, as Ronnie Jebavy slapped an RBI single in the seventh while Josh Wilson and Warnimont both added run scoring base hits in the eighth to build the lead to 6-2.

The Jaguars mounted one last rally, scoring a run in the ninth on a grounder to make the final score 6-3.

Warnimont led the Chargers with three hits, while Neiderland, Jebavy and Ammons had two hits each in the win.

Lucas Laster (7-2) was the winning pitcher after allowing two runs – one earned – on seven hits in six-plus innings. Kierce Kimbel picked up his first save after allowing only one earned run on three hits in three innings of relief.

McCance belted three hits while Trumon Jefferson and Wes Armstrong both added two hits in the defeat.

Sam Bragg (7-5) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs – two earned – on eight hits in six innings.

The Middle Georgia Warriors received some bad news Thursday morning, just prior to throwing out the first pitch against the Chargers of Columbia State.
Tournament officials discovered that Middle Georgia had used an ineligible player during the GCAA Region 17 Tournament. Region VII Tennessee commissioner Bobby Hudson told TSN they received word from the headquarters of the NJCAA to strike the Warriors from the tournament.
The NJCAA East Central tourney will now consist of three teams, Columbia State, Walters State of Tennessee’s Region VII and Georgia Perimeter of Region 17.
The first game now set for 3pm est/ 2 central today between Columbia State and Georgia Perimeter, with only one game being player Thursday.
The winner plays host Walters State at 11am est 10cdt Friday.
TennesseeSportsNet will have all of the Chargers action LIVE from Morristown.

From APSU:

Courtesy: Cody Bush, APSU Sports Information
Release: 05/11/2013
MARTIN, Tenn. – Senior starting pitcher Casey Delgado struck out 16 batters – the most by a pitcher since 1996 – leading Austin Peay State University’s baseball team to a 5-1 Ohio Valley Conference victory against UT Martin, Saturday, at Skyhawk Field.
Delgado allowed one run in his complete-game victory and that came in the game’s first four batters. He surrendered a leadoff single to center fielder Grant Glasser and a two-out RBI single to pitcher Taylor Cox. Those would be two of the three hits he would surrender on the day.
Delgado would strike out two batters in the first inning and that would be the game’s running theme. He would strike out two batters in eight of the nine innings he pitched. The only time he did not strike out two batters was the sixth inning and he needed only six pitches to induce three consecutive ground outs.
The most impressive stat of the game was Delgado retired the final 22 batters he faced. In fact, he faced the minimum of 25 batters after surrendering the RBI single in the first inning. He would allow a one-out single in the second inning, but battery mate P.J. Torres caught that runner stealing to end the frame.
Still the Austin Peay (37-13, 18-7 OVC) offense trailed 1-0 through four innings but would tie the game in the fifth. Center fielder Dylan Riner led off the inning with a single, stole second and scored on second baseman Brett Carlson’s single up the middle. The Govs would go on to load the bases with no outs but second baseman Jordan Hankins lined into an inning-ending triple play, thwarting the threat.
The Govs finally broke through in the sixth inning, striking for four runs. First baseman Craig Massoni started the inning with a single and scored courtesy shortstop Reed Harper’s double. Harper would then score on left fielder Cody Hudson’s single, giving APSU a 3-1 lead. Hudson would steal second and forced a wild throw from the catcher that allowed him to reach third. From there he scored on designated hitter Michael Davis’ double, a hit that ended Cox’s outing on the mound.
UTM reliever Carter Smith would surrender a single to catcher P.J. Torres before recording the inning’s first out. Carlson would push across the Govs fifth run with a groundout before Smith could snuff out the threat.
Austin Peay rapped out 13 hits – its seventh consecutive double-digit hit outing – with every batter recording one hit. Massoni led the Govs with a 3-for-4 outing, giving him six hits in the first two games of the series. Carlson added a 1-for-4, two RBI performance while Harper and Torres had two hits each.
Cox (0-6) suffered the loss after allowing five runs on 11 hits over five-plus innings. Glasser, Cox and Nelson each had one hit.
Austin Peay and UT Martin conclude their three-game OVC series with a 1 p.m., Sunday contest. That game will be available on the OVC Digital Network.

The Columbia State Chargers have earned the right to join the Walters State Senators in Morristown May 16-18 for the NJCAA East Central District Tournament after defeating Vol State 8-2 Monday for the TCCAA Championship.
The Chargers went 3-0 in the rain soaked Region VII tournament being held at Volunteer State in Gallatin by beating Volunteer State (twice) and Dyersburg State.
CSCC returns to their third straight NJCAA tournament. Both Walters State and Columbia State will be a tough foe for Georgia’s Region 17.
So far Georgia Perimeter has qualified for the East Central tournament. The Jaguars won the regular season title.
Because of rain this past weekend and into Monday, Saturday’s regular-season finale with Darton State College was cancelled.
The cancellation finishes Georgia Perimeter College at 25-6 in the GCAA standings, a half game ahead of second-place Middle Georgia State College. Middle completed its 32-game league schedule last week with a 25-7 record.
The GCAA tournament will determine a second conference team that will attend the district tournament.
#1 seed Georgia Perimeter is joined by #2 Middle Georgia, #3 Darton, #4 Gordon, #5 West Georgia Tech and #6 South Georgia. The GCAA Tournament runs May 8-11 at Darton State.

The 2013 Tennessee Community College Conference Region VII baseball and softball tournament began Friday and is scheduled for completion May 5th, but a slow moving weather system moving across Tennessee could spell trouble for tournament officials.

In play Friday the Columbia State Chargers defeated Dyersburg State 19-10 and will advance to the winner bracket final taking on host Volunteer State. The Pioneers beat #2 seed Chattanooga State 7-6.

In softball Walters State defeated Vol State 4-2 advancing to a winners bracket final against the Columbia State Lady Chargers who beat Region VII defending champion and NJCAA 2012 National Champions Chattanooga State 6-3.

Action is scheduled to resume Saturday, but the only problem is Mother Nature. It’s looking like some moderate to heavy rainfall moving across the state could be around until Sunday.

The forecast is not promising….a band of persistent… moderate to heavy rainfall will push into the area Friday evening and will slowly move across western middle Tennessee through Sunday morning. This will result in at least 2 inches of rainfall with locally higher amounts of 3 to 4 inches starting Friday night and lasting through Sunday morning.

Tournament officials will look at the situation and will be making a decision later Saturday. TSNSports will pass along the information via twitter (@TSNSports) Saturday.