Posted: Monday, June 6, 2011 10:13 pm

UC softball tryouts
slated for Wed. night

Tryouts for the Union City High School softball team for the 2012 season will be held Wednesday night.
The auditions will take place at 7:30 on the Lady Tornadoes’ field in Graham Park.
All players — whether they were on the team this past season or not — must participate in the tryouts, according to UC head coach Shane Sisco.
Players must bring their own workout gear.

Local players key
in Thunder triumph

The Jackson Thunder — aided by Union City’s Drake Parker and Matt Beatty of Dresden — won the 19-and-under 12-team Northwest Tennessee Diamond Wars over the weekend at Elam Stadium.
The Thunder beat the 18-year-old entry from Dulin’s Dodgers 7-6 in the semifinals when Beatty drove home Parker in the bottom of the seventh.
The Jackson entry then topped Dulin’s 16-year-old team in the finals, 4-3.
The Thunder roster also included Greenfield standout and UT Martin signee Dalton Potts as well as UCHS head coach Jeremy Maddox, who served as an assistant.
The Twin-Cities Raiders and Northwest Tennessee Blazers also represented the area in the tournament.

UTM adds signee
to baseball program

Coming off a record-setting season that culminated with the program’s first appearance in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament in 15 years, the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team has added Nico Zych out of St. Rita of Cascia High School on the outskirts of Chicago.
A native of Monee, Ill., Zych is a 6-0, 170-pound utility player and right-handed pitcher who head coach Bubba Cates expects to contribute immediately in 2012.  
St. Rita is coming off a 29-6 record in 2011, winning its regional championship. A dominant member of the Chicago Catholic League, the Mustangs were coming off back-to-back state runner-up appearances and have established themselves as the winningest program in the state of Illinois since 2004.         
As one of four Division-I commitments on his team, Zych was a 2011 Rawlings Central Region All-American Honorable Mention selection — playing primarily middle infield and the corner outfield spots.
Zych joins Carter Smith (LHP/St. Louis, Mo.), Taylor “Bug” Cox (LHP/Memphis), Dalton Potts (LHP/Greenfield) and Sonny Mastromatteo (INF/Ortonville, Mich.) in the Skyhawk signing class of 2011.
 
Vol linebacker Lathers
could miss time in fall

KNOXVILLE (AP) — University of Tennessee athletic officials say junior linebacker Herman Lathers has a broken ankle and will likely miss time in the 2011 season.
Lathers will undergo surgery in the coming days, WVLT-TV in Knoxville reported.
Lathers, who started 12 games in 2010, is the leading returning tackler for the Volunteers.
Lathers’ likely replacement, Greg King, had surgery Friday to repair a torn meniscus, but is expected to be ready in time for fall camp.
Published in The Messenger 6.6.11