MURFREESBORO — Local softball, baseball and track athletes have made their Spring Fling debuts. Thursday, it is the local tennis stars’ turn.

The TSSAA individual tournament gets underway at Old Fort Park at 11 a.m. for Division II and noon for Class AAA. Both classes will return later in the day for semifinal action — 3 for Division II and 4 for Class AAA. The finals are scheduled for Friday at 9 (boys) and 11 (girls) a.m. for all classes.

Hendersonville has qualified the doubles teams of Lauren Lee and Rae Gullett and Blair Godsey and Braden White. Beech senior Joseph Daniels will be making his third appearance at Spring Fling. Pope John Paul II senior Andy Druffel and Lady Commando sophomore Sarah Hall will be making their second straight Spring Fling trip.

MURFREESBORO — There seems to be only one thing — at least athletically — that keeps Beech's Julia and Jessica Rizor apart: the 3,200-meter run.

The sophomore twins, who are seemingly never more than a few meters apart from one another on a track or cross country course, competed in the final of the 3,200 at the TSSAA Class AAA Track and Field Championships on Wednesday night. And as was the case last year, there was only room for one of the sisters.

Julia ran an 11:22.20 to grab the last podium spot ahead of Jessica for an eighth-place finish. Jessica was only .18 behind with her 11:22.38. They ran in their own two-girl pack for a majority of the race.

"It was really strange," Julia said. "I knew Jessica was behind me the whole time so I kind of expected her to push with me. I tried to push with two laps to go. I wish she could have been up there with me, though."

GLADEVILLE — Pope John Paul II baseball's first-ever appearance at the TSSAA Division II-AA Tournament came to an end Wednesday afternoon against region rival Montgomery Bell Academy.

Behind a 10-run fifth-inning, including a walk-off grand slam, the Big Red posted a 13-3 victory at Wilson Central to keep their tournament alive and halt the Knights' run. 

Jack Rhodes hit a 2-2, two-out grand slam just over the 320-foot right field fence to give MBA, the fifth seed out of the East/Middle Region, the victory.

MURFFREESBORO — Jody Brothers said why not his Lady Knights at this year's TSSAA Division II-AA softball tournament?

And his Pope John Paul II squad responded as such by sleighing a softball giant Tuesday night in the form of Girls Preparatory School.

The Lady Knights collected a 5-4 victory at StarPlex against a GPS team that has played in the last eight state championship games and won four of them.

It is the first time JPII has defeated the Bruisers (23-8), and the first time GPS has lost in the opening round of Spring Fling since a 3-0 loss to Father Ryan on 2002. The Chattanooga school has been at Spring Fling nine times since then.

With the victory, the Lady Knights (25-18) move on to a noon (approximate) game on Thursday against the winner of Wednesday's St. Benedict-Baylor game.

GLADEVILLE — It was going to take a near perfect effort for Pope John Paul II to make a big splash in its TSSAA Division II-AA baseball tournament debut Tuesday.

After an inning against perennial DII power Christian Brothers and its talented right-handed pitcher John Wesley Ray, the Knights looked poised for an upset, but Ray and the Purple Wave eventually took control and came away with a 6-4 victory at Wilson Central.

“If you’re going to beat somebody this good, you have to take advantage of the opportunities when they come,” JPII coach Michael Brown said. “But I give (Ray) credit for being better than our hitters sometimes.”

JPII (22-9) will play against East/Middle Region foe Montgomery Bell Academy Wednesday morning at 10 in a losers’ bracket game. Christian Brothers (34-7) faces Memphis University School in the winners’ bracket final Wednesday.