By JOHN MOOREHOUSE
Two Northeast Tennessee athletes have their postseason hopes alive. Cam Sarvis is part of the Tennessee softball team in the Women’s College World Series, while Tyler Myatt is on the Tennessee baseball roster.
Let’s jump right into the report on local athletes in Division I baseball and softball.
BASEBALL
Gage Peterson
The David Crockett High alum had a banner season at Appalachian State. He was named Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year and first-team all-conference and established himself as a front-line starter. In 15 appearances, all starts, he went 8-1 with a 3.28 ERA, 39 walks, and 107 strikeouts in 85 innings. He led the Sun Belt in strikeouts and ranked second in batting average allowed (.196). He’ll be arguably the top returning pitcher in the Sun Belt — if he doesn’t enter the transfer portal.
Peterson helped App State to a banner season. The Mountaineers finished 30-24, went 17-13 in League play to set a program record for Sun Belt wins and finished third in the conference standings — their best league finish since 2012 — after being predicted to finish 10th in preseason.
Nate Conner
The Johnson City native and Science Hill alum had a breakout first season at ETSU capped by a second-team All-Southern Conference honor. He batted .308 with a .409 on base percentage while slugging .650. Conner belted 16 home runs, amassed 52 RBIs, and hit 19 doubles.
Conner finished the season, which he spent primarily as ETSU’s leadoff hitter, reaching base safely in 49 consecutive games. He’s another potential portal candidate for a high-major program with that type of performance.
Brogan Jones
The Daniel Boone high grad finished his first season at Longwood hitting .270 with a .374 on base percentage while slugging .405, with six homers, 37 RBIs, and 19 steals. Jones’ Longwood team finished 34-27 and made a Cinderella run to the championship of the Big South Conference tournament. In the process, the Lancers played the max possible of seven games in five days
Landon Smelser
Smelser, a Science Hill grad, wrapped his second year at Tennessee Tech as a mainstay in the outfield. He hit .291/.362/.461 with nine home runs and 16 RBIs. He was nearly perfect defensively, compiling a .994 fielding percentage.
Tennessee Tech finished 18-37 and 6-21 in the Ohio Valley Conference, its final year in that league before joining the SoCon in August in all sports.
Tyler Myatt
Myatt, a native of Tazewell, Tenn., who played his high school ball at Claiborne and spent this past summer with the Kingsport Axmen, has played sparingly for the Vols, appearing in 33 games with 17 starts, making only 72 at bats total. Myatt went into NCAA Regional play with a batting line of .250/.353/.458, three homers, and 12 RBIs.
Kam Durnin
The 2025 Appalachian League Player of the Year spent the 2026 college season at Missouri. Durnin batted .329/.438/.570, with nine homers, 43 RBIs, and a .974 fielding percentage. He helped Missouri post just the program’s third SEC tournament victory since the Tigers joined the league in 2013.
SOFTBALL
ETSU
As we have written about several times this spring, the ETSU softball squad features several locals on the roster, three of whom earned some type of all-conference honor
Abigail Taylor
The senior outfielder from Johnson City closed her college career with a .354/.397/.363 line at the plate and 21 stolen bases. She was named second-team All-SoCon.
Hailey Porter
The Kingsport native made the SoCon all-freshman team after starting regularly at shortstop for ETSU. She had a .230/.326/.322 line with three home runs, 22 RBIs, and eight stolen bases. Defensively, she led ETSU in assists.
Riley Croley
The Daniel Boone product had a successful first year at the college level. She played third base for the first time and acquitted herself well, also hitting .279/.399/.397 with three home runs and 30 RBIs. Croley swiped seven bases and joined Porter on the conference all-freshman team.
Eden Muncy
The Rye Cove product and Virginia High School League record setter went 5-7 in the circle with a 2.65 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP, 35 walks, and 56 strikeouts in 95 innings pitched. Muncy finished the season strong. She had three complete games in a nine-day span, including a no-hitter against Mercer in the SoCon tournament — the fourth in team history and the first by any team in the conference tournament in a decade.
Payton Moore
The Dobyns-Bennett product hit .309/.358/.576 with 10 home runs and 28 RBIs. She led ETSU in homers and was tied for 13th in the SoCon.
Julianne Tipton
As reported earlier this week, Tipton announced on May 22 that she was going into the transfer portal. Tipton played for Arizona State as a freshman and at Louisiana this spring.
Carly Compton
The Tennessee High alum didn’t see the circle much as a true freshman at North Carolina. She made three appearances, totaling 2 2-3 innings pitched, and allowed 10 runs (7 earned) on four hits and five walks. Her last outing was March 28 against Arizona State.
Savannah Jessee
The Daniel Boone standout had a strong season for Liberty, batting .309/.426/.564 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs.
Addyson Fisher, Virginia Tech
The first Division I athletes ever to come out of Volunteer High School in Church Hill, Fisher went 3-0 for the Hokies, compiling 3.57 ERA in nine appearances, including one start, in 15 2/3 total innings of work. Fisher did not throw at all in April and May, making her last appearance March 29 at Boston College.
Maci Masters, Western Kentucky
The Johnson City native and Daniel Boone standout had another strong season at the plate for Western Kentucky, batting .328/.446/.686 with 15 home runs and 40 RBIs. She’s led the Hill toppers in homers in each of the past two seasons, and her 15 in 2026 fell two shy of equaling the single-season program record. She played in all 53 games for WKU. Curiously, despite her strong numbers, Masters curiously did not make the All-Conference USA team.
Hannah Frye, Gardner-Webb
The Dobyns-Bennett product finished her sophomore season with 6-5 record and a 7.96 ERA in 22 appearances, including 10 starts, issuing 29 walks and tallying 12 strikeouts in 53 2-3 total innings.
Maddie Diamond, Delaware
The Science Hill product made some history as a freshman in Delaware. She hit .272 with a 1.079 OPS, slugging 17 home runs — the most ever by a Blue Hens freshman — with 46 RBIs. Diamond tied for the Conference USA lead in homers, ranked eighth in RBIs, and was 10th in OPS. She belted two homers in a conference tournament game, becoming just the seventh CUSA player to do so in that event, the first Delaware player to do it since 2021, and the first Delaware freshman in a decade.
BASKETBALL
Dante Oliver
Switching to basketball, former Dobyns-Bennett standout Dante Oliver transferred out of UNF this spring. No destination officially has been announced, but his Instagram page now mentions Carson-Newman. Oliver helped the Indians reach the state tournament in 2023. His father, Dez Oliver, was ETSU men’s basketball coach at the time.