For a school that doesn’t field a baseball team around which to anchor its spring, the weekend’s sporting contests were rather exciting.

The Paladins were shotmaking in golf, exuberant in tennis, dominating lacrosse, and so on and so forth.

With the score tied at 3-all, senior Marissa Pennings defeated Alessandra Caceres, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, at No. 2 singles to lead No. 38 Furman past East Tennessee State, 4-3, Saturday to win the Southern Conference Championship at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The title is the Paladins’ 22nd overall and sixth in the last eight years. With the victory, top-seeded Furman (21-3, 7-0) earns the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which will be held at regional sites beginning May 2-3.

Furman posted wins at Nos. 1 and t2 doubles to score the opening point. Seniors Ellie Schulson and Sara Snyder beat Daniela Rivera and Caceres, 7-5, at No. 1, and senior Jess Dawson and sophomore Macy Hitchcock held off Jana Rovira and Julia Millan in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4), at 2. The 3 match was unfinished. 

In singles, Dawson defeated Rovira, 7-5, 6-4, to push the Paladin lead to 2-0, but the Bucs (14-9) rallied to score the next three points.  Millan recorded a 6-3, 6-3 advantage versus Schulson at No. 4, then Ksenija Rage topped senior Grace Thomas, 6-2, 6-3, at 6. In the top-seeded contest, Rivera defeated Snyder, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Hitchcock then posted a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Ralitsa Alexandrova at 5 to tie the match at 3-3, setting up the decisive No. 2 matchup. 

“This team has accomplished so much these past four months, but we are most proud of who they are as people,” said Furman head coach Michelle Dasso. “They live each day with a sense of gratitude, not entitlement, and that’s when you know you’ve really won as a coach.“ 

The Furman men, seeded fifth, made it all way to the tournament finals, where at last they succumbed to top-seeded Samford.

The Bulldogs improve to 19-5 on the season and earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Making their first conference tournament finals appearance since 2019, Furman captured the doubles point after a pair of tiebreaker victories at Nos. 1 and 3. Samford won at 2 before Elijah Poritzky and Matt Kandel claimed their sixth victory of the season with a 7-6 (3) triumph over Darcy Nicholls and J.B. Pickard.

Playing at No. 3, Nicolas Dispas and Nico Snyder clinched the point with their team leading 14^th win of the year, 7-6 (4), against Sebastian Harrison and Victorio Sardinha.
The Bulldogs started singles with three straight victories at Nos. 3, 5, and 6 to hold a 3-1 lead. The Paladins answered back with back-to-back wins from Poritzky at No. 1 and Kandel at No. 2 to even the score, 3-3. Poritzky secured his sixth victory at No. 1 when he defeated Sandeep Mohandoss, 6-4, 6-4, and Kandel added his eight win at No. 2 with a three-set victory against Nicholls, 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-2.
For the fourth straight match, the contest was decided with the score tied at 3-3 after Walker Allen and Pickard sent their No. 4 match to the third set. Allen took the opening set, 6-4, and Pickard followed in the second, 6-3. Pickard clinched the match for Samford winning the third set, 6-2.
Furman concludes its season with a 9-15 overall record.

Senior Matthew Smith broke Furman’s 48-year-old record in the men’s 800 meters to lead the Paladin track and field teams Friday at the Wake Forest Invitational at Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Smith posted a time of 1:46.75 to finish fourth in the event topping the former Paladin standard of 1:48.10, which was set by Phil Barker in 1977. His time ranks eighth in the East region and 11th nationally.

For the women, freshman Nysa Males placed fifth in the 1,500 with a personal-best time of 4:24.44, and junior Carly Wilkes recorded a personal-best time of 15:54.45 to finish eighth in the 5,000. Wilkes’ time ranks 29th in the East region. 

Furman athletes notched six personal bests at the meet along with five additional season bests.

The Paladins will compete at the Charlotte Invitational, the Penn Relays and the Payton Jordan Invitational on Friday.

Pitchers Anglelina Ricciardi and Emme Buzhardt held the Southern Conference’s top offense to one unearned run, and Kiley Perry belted a three-run homer as Furman topped first-place Samford, 6-1, in the finale of a three-game series Saturday afternoon in Homewood, Ala.

 Ricciardi, making her second start of the weekend, limited the Bulldogs to an unearned run on six hits over 4-2/3 innings to improve to 6-8 in the circle. The sophomore walked three batters and fanned two against the Bulldogs, who entered the day batting .314 as a team.

 Buzhardt came on in relief of Ricciardi with two on and two out in the fifth and induced a fly ball to escape the jam. She finished the day working 2.1 shutout innings allowing only two hits to secure her third save of the campaign.

The victory snapped Furman’s nine-game skid and improved the Paladins to 14-31 overall and 4-11 in the SoCon. Samford dropped to 30-18 overall and 11-4 in league play.

Samford swept a doubleheader on Friday, 5-1, 6-5. The Paladins couldn’t hold a 5-1 lead in the latter game.

Furman returns to action with a three-game series at Western Carolina next Saturday and Sunday.

The Furman lacrosse team scored over 20 goals for the fourth time in five games Saturday afternoon, earning a 21-4 victory over the Radford Highlanders in Big South Conference action at Student Outdoor Recreation Complex in Radford, Va.
Furman records its third consecutive victory and improves to 11-3 overall and 5-1 in the Big South. With the loss, Radford drops to 2-12 on the season and 0-6 in conference play.
Paige Harman paced the Paladin offense with 10 points on five goals and five assists while Sofija Buzelis scored a game high seven goals. Buzelis finished with eight points and led the team with nine draws. Anna Roser finished with six points on five goals and an assist while Lily Toole dished out two assists.

Goalie Madigan Brewer recorded 10 saves as Furman held an opponent under five goals for the second time this season. The Paladins limited Mercyhurst to four goals in a 20-4 victory on March 2 in Greenville.
Maggie Wisniewski had a team-high three goals for the Highlanders, and Kaitlyn Lytton tallied two assists. Goalie Ava Lamanna recorded nine saves.
The win puts Furman one away from tying the school record for victories in a season, matching the previous mark of 12 set three times in 2016, 2017 and 2021.
Furman plays its final road game of the season on Wednesday, traveling to Mercer for a 4 p.m. opening draw.

Men’s golf will compete in the Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship Sunday through Tuesday at The Oconee Course in Greensboro, Ga.

The Rees Jones-designed course, which is serving as the site of the championship for the fifth straight year, will play at par-72, 7,174 yards. Tee times will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday and at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Paladin lineup includes junior Harris Barth, junior Clark Akers, senior Will Morlan, senior Trey Diehl and freshman Ludvig Josefsson.  Freshman David Oliver, IV will travel as an alternate.

Furman is looking to claim its 14th SoCon crown and first since 2010.  The Paladins turned in a fourth-place finish last season, and Barth finished in eighth place. 

It annoys me that some sports-themed radio stations talk about pro football year around.

April is such a great time to discuss who’s playing quarterback for the Steelers in the fall and how, if I’ve got a lick of sense, I should be betting about it now, or that’s the shills’ opinion.

I love football. Two of my favorite places are Wilder and Paladin stadia. But to everything there is a season (turn, turn, turn).

What has defined my view for about 40 years is the belief that there are lots of poor players, but there’s no such thing as a bad recruit (or draft pick, or free-agent signing). Some kid’s going to wind up on All-America teams after going to school as a walk-on, and some other kid’s going to play for three four-year schools, two jucos and wind up losing all his money on bitcoin.

This is the topic of a novel I’ve been trying to sell. I’m rewriting it now.

However, many novels – and non-fiction books – of mine are available at Amazon.

I have a baseball novel, The Latter Days, on the market. It’s about an old baseball scout, Clyde Kinlaw, and his commitment to an unknown long shot and an overrated prospect.

I wrote two novels about hell-raising stock car racer Barrie Jarman, Lightning in a Bottle and Life Gets Complicated.