McCallie senior left-hander Ryan Moore will sign a baseball scholarship with Middle Tennessee State University.

At Middle, Moore will play for head coach Steve Peterson, who was an assistant with the Blue Raiders when Ryan's father, Mike Moore, played there.

"It was basically Middle and Georgia Tech,'' Ryan Moore said. "I chose Middle due to the money situation. I couldn't go wrong either way.''

Moore committed to MTSU associate head coach Jim McGuire. He will sign scholarship papers in the next few days.

"I really like coach Peterson,'' Moore said. "My dad also likes him a lot. He's been straight up front with me. I'll feel comfortable playing for him.

"I think he wants me to be a two-way player. I think he wants me to pitch and to swing the bat.''

Moore is expected to be taken in the amateur baseball draft next week. The first day of the draft is Monday, June 7.

"If I get enough money, I'll sign professionally,'' Moore said. "I've given some teams a dollar amount. They know exactly what I'll sign for. If I don't get that, I'll just go to MTSU.''

Moore was 9-3 this season and led McCallie to the Division II East region championship. He hit four home runs, drove in 40 runs and hit close to .400.

"Winning the region in baseball this year was especially fun because we're in there with Baylor and Webb,'' Moore said. "It didn't work out at the state, but we got pretty far.''

In 2001, Moore guided McCallie to the Division II state football championship. This past season, he threw for 1,550 yards and 12 touchdowns, completing 54 percent of his passes.

"Football is gone, and that's a little sad,'' Moore said. "But not too bad. I'll miss it a little more when football rolls around.''

Moore, who would like to be a meteorologist, said his decision between MTSU and Georgia Tech was made even more difficult because Tech has a meteorology school.

"Coach Peterson said to just come and play for him and then get a master's degree,'' Moore said. "I can become what I want that way. It will work out.''

Sun Belt baseball champion MTSU will play 10th-ranked Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament in Athens, Ga., Friday, with the Blue Raiders earning a No. 4 seeding in the regional.

The Blue Raiders (40-20) and Georgia (38-20), the SEC co-champions and top-seeded team in the regional, will play Friday at 3 p.m. eastern at Foley Field.

Middle Tennessee is making its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth in five years. The Blue Raiders shared the regular-season title in the Sun Belt with a 16-8 record, the second time in four years the squad has won an SBC title. Middle Tennessee has NCAA appearances in 1968, 1976, 1981-82, 1987-88, 1990-91, 1995,

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)