THE SPORTS DESK
COLLEGE NOTEBOOK: Pierce is up to par
Neither rain nor snow nor one of the nation’s toughest golf courses seem to have slowed Hannah Pierce.
Playing the best golf of her career at Longwood, the junior from King George shot rounds of 73 (Sunday) and 74 (Monday) on Williamsburg’s famed Kingsmill Resort River Course during the three-day C&F Bank Intercollegiate.
Pierce shared the first-round lead with Boston College’s Vinh-Hoa Ngo, who didn’t complete Monday’s weather-delayed second round. Longwood stood second among the 28 participating teams after one round of the tournament, which is scheduled to conclude Tuesday, weather permitting.
SOFTBALL
Junior Heather Jenkins (Orange) homered and pitched a complete game in Bridgewater’s 6–2 win over Millikin Friday in Kissimmee, Fla. She’s 5–2 with a 1.64 ERA and is batting .256 with two homers and seven RBIs.
Senior Meghan Smith (Mountain View) hit her second and third homers of the year as Appalachian State swept a three-game weekend series from visiting Samford.
Sophomore Sabrina Hill (Mountain View) went 6 for 7 with a homer as Christopher Newport split a doubleheader with Piedmont Sunday. She’s batting .406 with three homers, 22 RBIs and seven stolen bases in seven attempts.
Sophomore Megan Baltzell (Mountain View) went 2 for 5 with four runs scored and two RBIs in Longwood’s 18–9 win over Charleston Southern Saturday.
BASEBALL
Eastern Mennoite senior Casey Harlow (Louisa) struck out eight batters in 7 innings against 13th-ranked Shenandoah Wednesday in a game suspended by darkness, tied 4–4 after nine innings.
Freshman Geoff Cieslewitz (North Stafford) went 5 for 10 with two RBIs as King (Tenn.) won two of three weekend games from Mount Olive (N.C.), the nation’s top-ranked Division II team. Derek Justice (Orange) was the losing pitcher for Mount Olive in Sunday’s 12–7 finale.
Senior second baseman Chris Bell (Louisa) went 3 for 3 with a home run, three runs scored and three RBIs in Richmond’s 9–7 win over George Mason Wednesday. He’s batting .400 for the Spiders (14–5).
Senior Jeremy Brown (Culpeper) struck out nine in six innings as VMI beat Radford 10–4 Saturday for its first Big South Confernce win of the year.
Junior first baseman Ryan McBroom (Courtland) homered in each game as West Virginia split a doubleheader at Kansas State Friday, winning the opener 13–2 and losing the nightcap 6–5.
Senior outfielder Ryan Brown (Stafford) went 4 for 5 in William & Mary’s 6–2 loss to Liberty Tuesday.
BASKETBALL
In his final college game, senior forward Lamar Giggetts (Courtland) scored 18 points in Randolph–Macon’s 93–76 loss at Amherst (Mass.) in the NCAA Division III Sweet 16 round Saturday.
Local players whose teams will play in the NCAA Division I tournaments include Duke junior forward Josh Hairston (Courtland), Oregon junior center Waverly Austin, (Courtland), Georgia freshman forward Merritt Hempe (Stafford) and Navy freshman forward Chelsea Terry (North Stafford).
SWIMMING
Florida State sophomore Josh Friedel (Mountain View) qualified for the March 28–30 NCAA Division I meet in Indianapolis in the 200-yard backstroke and has the option of swimming the 100 back as well.
TRACK AND FIELD
Eastern Mennonite senior Michael Allen (Louisa) won the men’s long jump (21–9) and finished second in the triple jump (40–1) and 200 meters (23.56) at Saturday’s season-opening Roanoke Invitational.
Steve DeShazo: 540/374-5443
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