The South Atlantic Conference and AstroTurf Present Senior Spotlights Featuring Tusculum Baseball, Golf, Tennis and Track & Field

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – In light of the recent events of the COVID-19 pandemic that canceled the remainder of the 2020 South Atlantic Conference spring sports seasons, the SAC along with its corporate partner AstroTurf, will be presenting the SAC AstroTurf Senior Spotlights. These highlights will showcase the spring sports teams at each of our 12 institutions and will give fans a brief overview of the team's shortened season, while highlighting the 2020 senior student-athletes on each team.

We continue our AstroTurf Senior Spotlights with the Tusculum University Pioneers and the baseball, men's and women's golf teams, men's and women's tennis teams and men's and women's track & field teams.  

BASEBALL

The Tusculum baseball team finished the 2020 campaign with 15-10 overall record, including a 4-5 record in conference play. The Pioneers opened the season with 10 of its first 16 games coming against teams that advanced to the 2019 NCAA Division II Tournament including eight in a row as they went 5-3 in those games.

This year's club was led by six seniors including Daulton Martin, Mitch McCain, Carter Linton, Kent Noe, Nick Flesher and Kaleb Bell.

Martin, a two-time All-America choice and three-time All-SAC pick at second base, finished the season leading the SAC in walks (21), hit by pitch (11) and stolen bases (16-of-16). He led the Pioneers with his .508 on-base percentage and was tied for the team lead with six doubles and two triples. Martin finished fourth on the team with a .333 batting average and his 61 fielding assists were second in the conference. During the 2020 season, Martin established a Tusculum career records in runs scored (183), doubles (60), walks (126) and hit by pitch (37). He also broke the Pioneer single-game record for stolen bases with his five stolen bases against Gannon University.

McCain has been one of the workhorses in the Tusculum bullpen during his career. He appeared in 11 contests this year where he posted a 1-2 record with a team-best two saves and a 4.34 earned run average. His 57 career appearances are the ninth-most ever by a Pioneer pitcher and his seven career saves are just one shy of cracking the program's top-10.

Linton also posted 11 relief appearances for the Pioneers this season where he had a 1-1 record with a 1.35 ERA. He was third on the team with his 20 strikeouts in just 13.1 innings of work, while notching a save and combined on a shutout.

Noe missed most of the season due to illness and made one appearance in the final week of the year as he pitched one shutout inning with a strikeout.  In his career, he played in 16 games with eight starts where he went 1-1 with a save. He accounted for 26 strikeouts and a 4.46 ERA during his career.

Flesher joined the program this year and emerged as one of the weekend starters. He went 3-1 with a 3.94 ERA in his six mound starts. His 29.2 innings were second on the team as he tallied 19 strikeouts and combined on a shutout.

Bell battled through injuries in his senior season where he appeared in two games.

2020 Pioneer Baseball Seniors

WOMEN'S GOLF
The Tusculum women's golf team finished in the top-five in six of its seven tournaments during the 2019-20 season including two tournament victories. The Pioneers opened the year with a tournament title at the Mars Hill Invitational shooting a two-day score of 629 including 304 in the final round. Tusculum also won team tournament honors at the Barton Intercollegiate with a score of 632.

Pioneer senior Jennifer Keim carded back-to-back rounds of 73 to lead wire-to-wire and capture medalist honors with a two-over par 146, winning by 10 shots at the Barton Invitational. For her efforts, she was named the AstroTurf SAC Women's Golfer of the Week.

Keim finished the season with a 75.93 stroke average, which is the second lowest in school history. Keim played in all seven events where she finished in the top-20 six times including four times in the top-five. She finished runner-up at the Mars Hill Invitational and King Invitational and tied for third place at the Myrtle Beach Intercollegiate. 

2020 Pioneer Women's Golf Seniors

MEN'S GOLF
The Tusculum men's golf team record four top-three finishes in its six tournaments during the 2019-20 season. The Pioneers lost in a playoff and finished runner-up at the Mars Hill Fall Invitational. They shot a seven-under par 569 and were led by tournament medalist Jeffery Perez who posted a final round 65.

Tusculum also finished runner-up at both the King Invitational and the Walters State Fall Classic. In its final event of the year, the Pioneers placed third at the Richard Rendleman Invitational.

Two seniors highlight the Tusculum roster; John Bennett and Hunter Chandley.

Bennett was competing in his second season with the golf team after playing the first couple of years on the Pioneer baseball team.  He played in one tournament this year where he finished 26^th at the Walters State Fall Classic.  In his three career appearances, Bennett has an 82.8 scoring average.

Chandley also played in the Walters State event where he tied for 12^th place with a two-day score of 76-77=153 for a 76.5 scoring average.  In his nine career events, he has logged 18 competitive rounds where he has a 78.7 stroke average which includes three top-20 performances and one top-10 finish.

2020 Pioneer Men's Golf Seniors

WOMEN'S TENNIS
The Pioneers were No. 17 in the ITA Division II National Team Rankings and had an overall record of 6-3, with two of their three losses coming against teams ranked inside the top 10. Tusculum was 2-1 in conference action, with wins over Newberry (5-2) and Coker (6-1).

Tusculum had made the NCAA Division II Tournament each of the last three seasons on the strength of its six-member senior class, consisting of Amber Lackey, Julia Lopez, Annie McCullough, Caitlin McCullough, Africa Mota and Lyndsey Pulliam.

The McCullough sisters played together for two and a half seasons at Tusculum, combining for a 62-14 record as a doubles team. This past fall, the McCulloughs were the ITA Division II national runners-up in doubles and were ranked second by the ITA heading into the spring. The McCulloughs were 38-8 in dual matches, including 18-2 in SAC competition, and had a 24-6 mark in tournament action during their Tusculum careers. Annie McCullough won a program-record 91 singles matches and was 28-2 all-time in SAC play, while Caitlin McCullough was 46-19 all-time in singles and had a 17-3 league mark. Annie was SAC Player of the Year in 2019 and along with Caitlin were first-team All-SAC in both singles and doubles last season.

Lopez went 46-20 in singles and 27-18 in doubles during her career, finishing 12-3 in singles and 24-8 in doubles in SAC competition. Lopez was SAC honorable mention in both singles and doubles in 2019 and was regionally ranked in singles by the ITA this fall. She was 14-5 in singles and 9-7 in doubles this season.

Mota has a career singles record of 54-32, with a 24-8 record in SAC matches, and is 43-24 in doubles while going 19-4 in conference play. Mota had an 8-8 record in singles and a 9-7 mark in doubles for the Pioneers this season.

Lackey returned to competition this season after missing last spring due to injury and had a 4-4 record in doubles including a 2-1 mark in conference play. Lackey had a career record of 14-15 in doubles, going 3-2 in conference play, and was 50-23 in doubles which included a 20-3 record in SAC action.

Pulliam did not appear in any matches this season, but compiled a 6-3 singles record and a 5-4 doubles mark during her first three seasons with the Pioneers. 

2020 Pioneer Women's Tennis Seniors

MEN'S TENNIS
Tusculum had a 7-4 record during the 2019-20 season, winning five straight matches during February. Two of the Pioneers' four losses came to nationally-ranked opponents, and the Pioneers had a 1-2 mark in conference competition.

Yago Fernandez, the team's lone senior, had not appeared in a match during the spring season due to injury, but had gone 7-2 in singles during tournament competition last fall and 1-0 in dual matches to improve his career singles record to 45-24. Fernandez was second-team preseason All-SAC in singles and earned All-SAC honors four times in his career (twice in singles, twice in doubles), while reaching as high as 70th in the ITA Division II national singles rankings. 

2020 Pioneer Men's Tennis Seniors

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
The Pioneers won five gold medals and had the best finish in program history at the SAC Indoor Championship with a third-place showing. Senior members of the team were middle distance runner Brittany Bowery and distance runner Nicole McMillen.

McMillen was the SAC Track & Field Athlete of the Year after winning gold in the 3,000-meter, 5,000-meter and distance medley relay at the conference indoor championship meet. She set school and conference records in the mile, 3,000m and 5,000m, was named USTFCCCA Southeast Region Track Athlete of the Year and was a three-time SAC Track Athlete of the Week. She also owns the school outdoor records in the 1,500m (4:37.74), 5,000m (17:49.32) and steeplechase (10:25.37), earning All-America honors in the steeplechase in 2019. McMillen was the 2019 SAC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year after winning four races, including the conference championship meet.

Bowery competed in six events during the indoor track season, setting a career best in the 800 meters at 2:44.32 on Feb. 22 at the USC Open. She ranks 10th all-time in the indoor 800 and eighth in the outdoor 400 at 1:06.48.

2020 Pioneer Women's Track & Field Seniors

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD
The Tusculum men finished sixth at the SAC Indoor Track & Field Championship for the third straight season. Distance runners Kyle Stanley and T.J. Tupps were the senior members of the Pioneer squad, and each ran in the distance medley relay which finished in fourth place and set a school record with a time of 10:36.45.

Stanley ranks in the top 10 in program history in four individual indoor events -- third in the 800-meter (2:01.11), sixth in the mile (4:35.85), seventh in the 400-meter (52.73 seconds) and eighth in the 3,000-meter (9:25.37). In outdoor competition, Stanley ranks fourth in the 800m (2:01.30) and fifth in the 400m (52.35 seconds) and is part of the 4x400m relay that set a school record of 3:27.25.

Tupps finished 11th in the mile and 14th in the 3,000-meter at the SAC Indoor Championships, and on the school indoor performance list he is second in the 3,000m (8:56.43), third in the mile (4:27.73) and sixth in the 5,000m (16:09.46). Tupps ranks fourth in the outdoor 5,000m with a time of 16:13.05.

2020 Pioneer Men's Track & Field Seniors

AstroTurf is an official corporate partner of the South Atlantic Conference and title sponsor of the Conference's Player of the Week awards program.

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