The Hawks (38-16) earned the No. 4 seed out of the SSAC East Division with a sweep of Southern Wesleyan in South Carolina over the weekend and will square off with the Senators (40-15), who coasted to the No. 1 seed in the West Division with a 16-2 conference mark, at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Shorter’s 38 wins are the most since head coach Mike Sansing led the Hawks to a 39-13 record. That team won the GIAC Conference championship.
The Hawks are led offensively by junior Cody Hooper and senior Matt Johnson. Hooper enters the SSAC Tournament batting .337 with team-high 19 doubles and nine home runs. Hooper has driven in 39 runs.
Johnson, the SSAC’s leading hitter in 2010, saw an increase in his power numbers in 2011. Johnson is batting .314 heading into the tournament with five homers and a team-best 42 RBI. His 16 doubles rank second on the team.
On the mound, Shorter has gotten consistent performances from ace Brick Carter.
The senior finished the regular season 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA. Carter ranks third in the SSAC with 88 strikeouts in 82.1 innings and has walked just 23 batters.
SHORTER TENNIS
The Shorter University men and women’s tennis teams wrapped up the season with losses at home to nationally-ranked Southern States Athletic Conference rival Auburn University-Montgomery on Saturday afternoon at the Walt Attaway Tennis Complex.
The 11th-ranked Lady Hawks (11-3, 2-3 SSAC) dropped a 6-3 decision to No. 4 AUM while the 15th-ranked Hawks (10-3, 2-1 SSAC) fell 8-1 to the third-ranked Senators.
On the women’s side, Shorter played tough in both doubles and singles competition, but was unable to catch the break it needed to pull off the upset.
Playing in her final home match, senior Danielle Monteith teamed up with Emma deBeaucoudrey at No. 1 doubles and fell just short of an upset of AUM’s top pair of Ana Veselinovic and Morgane Zowczak. The Lady Hawks sprinted out to a 5-1 lead in the top doubles match before falling..
Candice Laurent played No. 2 singles and dropped a 6-3, 6-4 decision to AUM’s Jade Curtis.
Nienke Van Staveren also played well at No. 4 singles, but ultimately lost 6-3, 6-4 to Alina Tsepluckova.
Shorter now awaits its SSAC Tournament fate in both the men and women’s draw. The SSAC Tournament will once again be held in Montgomery, Ala.
BERRY LACROSSE
Wes Goldsberry scored four goals to lead Berry to an 18-3 victory over Hanover in a men’s lacrosse match at Ford Field on Monday.
Berry scored the game’s first five goals before eventually taking a 14-2 lead into halftime and cruising to the victory.
Nine different players scored for the Vikings, who won their second consecutive game and improved to 5-8 on the season. Along with Goldsberry’s four goals, Berry also received three goals apiece from Cal Supik and Michael Emanuelo; two goals from Bryan Byers and CJ McRae; and a goal each from Marshall Henderson, Nat Morey and Jake Cooper.
SHORTER GOLF
The Shorter men’s golf team is in second place after the first round of the Southern States Athletic Conference championship at the Green Isle Country Club in Columbus.
The Hawks, ranked ninth in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, shot a first round 292, and is six shots back of current leader William Carey University (286).
Shorter is five shots ahead of third-place Lee (297). Spring Hill (300) and Southern Wesleyan (301) round out the top five after 18 holes.
The tournament continues today.
SHORTER SOFTBALL
The Shorter softball team will take on Southern Wesleyan in a regular season-ending doubleheader at 2 p.m. today at the Alto Park Softball Complex.
The games were originally scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., but due to impending poor weather patterns, the teams agreed to move the start of Game 1 up two hours.
The Lady Hawks (37-11) have already clinched the Southern States Athletic Conference East Division top-seed and open play in the SSAC Tournament on Thursday at 6 pm against either Faulkner or Columbia.
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