Area/state college baseball/softball postseason results/schedule/recaps (Sunday PM)
Updates throughout each day. Game recaps for Mercer, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Kennesaw State to be found here.
Updated: 6:30 p.m., Sunday, final update
SUNDAY
Samford explodes in fifth, mercy-rules Mercer for SoCon title
Going into Sunday’s noon first pitch, only three teams had scored 11 or more runs against Mercer this season.
Samford put that many up in the fifth.
The Bears couldn’t answer, and Samford took a 14-4 seven-inning win over Mercer in the Southern Conference championship game.
It was Mercer’s worst loss of the season, coming against a team that’s won six straight against the Bears. The last time Mercer was mercy-ruled was in a 14-1 loss to Georgia State on Feb. 17, 2015, although there were a few games since then (14-2, FAMU, 2015 and 14-14, Austin Peay, 2017) that Mercer lost by 10 where the mercy rule wasn’t in effect.
Samford gets the conference’s automatic bid, and will be the only Southern Conference team in the NCAAs. The Bulldogs’ RPI entering Sunday was 103, third-best in the league, behind No. 68 UNCG and No. 90 Wofford. Mercer was next at 137.
It was the biggest margin of victory in the championship game since The Citadel bat UNCG 12-1 in 1998. Elon beat College of Charleston 17-8 in 2008.
Mercer got off to a good start with a 3-1 lead, and then came the bottom of the fifth. Samford went through 15 batters and four Mercer pitchers in the 11-run inning.
The Bulldogs ended it early with Branden Fryman’s two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.
Outfielder Trey Truitt and second baseman Jackson Ware made the all-tournament team.
The pair are in the top five in games played among active SoCon players, and Truitt is only the second player to make three all-tournament teams.
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SATURDAY
Mercer rolls into championship round of SoCon
The Bears scored in six of eight at-bats ad pulled away for a 10-2 win over Western Carolina in an elimination game of the Southern Conference Tournament.
Mercer plays undefeated Samford at noon Sunday.
Chase Burks came up huge on the mound with eight innings, huge because ace reliever Robert Broom started Saturday’s first game and went nearly four innings. So Mercer’s pitching is in decent shape for what could be a two-game Sunday.
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Avant pitches Georgia into Women’s College World Series
Stratford alum Mary Wilson Avant had a no-hitter for 5.2 innings, but still had to sweat things out against a scrappy Tennessee team.
The Vols kept the pressure on and forced extra innings, but Avant remained unrattled in an eight-inning complete-game 2-1 win over Tennessee and lift Georgia to the Women’s College World Series.
Tennessee was the home team in the second game of the series in Athens, and tied it at 1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to counter Georgia’s run in the top half.
UGA took another one-run lead, on Cortni Emanuel’s two-out homer to right. Tennessee got a one-out single in the bottom half, but Avant got a fly to center and grounder back to her to finish it off.
Avant threw a four-hitter with five strikeouts and one walk, throwing 119 pitches.
The WCWS in Oklahoma City starts on Thursday.
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Samford pops Mercer in SoCon winner’s bracket semi
The domination by Mercer in the first two games of the Southern Conference tournament came to a screeching halt with Samford’s 10-3 win.
The Bulldogs remained undefeated in the tournament and moved to the championship at noon Sunday. The Bears, who outscored the first two opponents 34-0, will try to regroup for the 7 p.m game against the winner of No. 9 Western Carolina and No. 1 UNCG in an elimination game.
Samford scored more against Mercer than in its first two tournament wins. But the Bulldogs know more than most how to beat the Bears. Samford swept Mercer in mid-April, winning 7-0, 6-1 and 4-0, as offensively challenged a series for Mercer in a long time.
Robert Broom, the ace reliever, got his first college start, and left after four innings and three runs. He battled a blister on a finger on his pitching hand.
The Bulldogs got to Zach Graveno for three more, and he didn’t get an out in the five-run Samford fifth, which followed Mercer taking a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth.
Samford’s 1oth run came on a wild pitch on a ball four, and Bulldog pitchers struck out 13 Bears.
It was the first double-digit output against Mercer since a 16-8 loss to Georgia Tech on April 10.
Baseball
Southern Conference
at Greenville, S.C.
Tuesday
No. 9 Western Carolina 6, The Citadel 5
Wednesday
No. 5 Mercer 19, No. 4 VMI, 7 inn.
WCU 10, No. 1 UNCG 2
No. 2 Samford 4, No. 7 Furman 0
No. 3 Wofford 8, No. 6 ETSU 7, 10 inn.
Thursday
UNCG 11, VMI 7
ETSU 5, Furman 2
Mercer 15, Western Carolina 0, 7 inn.
Samford 5, Wofford 2
Friday
Western Carolina 11, ETSU 8
UNCG 15, Wofford 7
Saturday
Samford 10, Mercer 3
Western Carolina 8, UNCG 4
Mercer 10, Western Carolina 2
Sunday
Championship, Samford 14, Mercer 4, 7 inn.
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SEC
at Hoover, Ala.
Tuesday
No. 11 Texas A&M 3, No. 6 Vanderbilt 1
No. 7 Auburn 4, No. 10 Kentucky 3
No. 8 LSU 8, No. 9 Mississippi State 5
No. 5 South Carolina 4, No. 12 Missouri 2
Wednesday
Auburn 9, No. 2 Ole Miss 3
No. 1 Florida 8, LSU 3
No. 4 Arkansas 13, USC 8
Thursday
Ole Miss 5, Georgia 4, 10 inn.
LSU 6, USC 4, 12 inn.
Texas A&M 4, Auburn 2
Florida vs. Arkansas, moved to Friday
Friday
Arkansas 8, Florida 2
Mississippi vs. Auburn
LSU vs. Florida (suspended to 11 a.m. Saturday, 10-o LSU, bottom sixth)
Saturday
LSU 11, Florida 0, 7 inn.
Mississippi 2, Texas A&M 1
LSU 2, Arkansas 1
Sunday
Championship, Mississippi 9, LSU 1
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ACC
at Durham, N.C.
Pool play
Tuesday
No. 12 Pitt 2, No. 8 Georgia Tech 1
No. 6 Florida State 3, No. 10 Virginia 2, 11 inn.
No. 7 Miami 6, No. 10 Notre Dame 2
Wednesday
No. 5 Louisville 10, No. 9 Wake Forest 2
No. 2 Clemson 21, No. 11 Notre Dame 4
No. 12 Pitt 5, No. 1 North Carolina 4
Thursday
No. 4 Duke 6, No. 9 Wake Forest 2, 13 inn.
No. 10 Virginia 4, N.C. State 2
No. 7 Miami vs. No. 2 Clemson 7, Miami 1
Friday
No. 5 Louisville 9, No. 4 Duke 2
No. 1 North Carolina 9, No. 8 Georgia Tech 0
No. 6 Florida State 5, No. 3 N.C. State 2
Saturday
Louisville 5, Pitt 2
Florida State 5, Clemson 4
Sunday
Championship, Florida State 11, Louisville 8, 10 inn.
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Sun Belt
at Lafayette, La.
Tuesday
No. 7 Little Rock 2, No. 10 Georgia State 1
No. 8 Texas-Arlington 5, No. 9 Arkansas State 4, 10 inn.
Wednesday
No. 4 South Alabama 5, No. 5 Georgia Southern 3
No. 1 Coastal Carolina 12, UTA 2, 8 inn.
No. 3 Troy 5, No. 6 Texas State 1
Little Rock vs. No. 2 Louisiana (33-23), weather delay
Thursday
Louisiana 19, Arkansas 16
Georgia Southern 3, UTA 1
Texas State 6, Little Rock 3
Coastal Carolina 16, South Alabama 4
Troy 10, Louisiana 1
Friday
South Alabama 12, Georgia Southern 0, 7 inn.
Texas State 11, Louisiana 1, 7 inn.
Saturday
Coastal Carolina 3, South Alabama 1
Troy 10, Texas State 0, 7 inn.
Sunday
2 p.m.: Championship, Coastal Carolina vs. Troy
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Atlantic Sun
at North Florida
Wednesday
No. 1 Stetson 7, No. 6 New Jersey Tech 2
No. 2 Jacksonville 9, No. 5 Lipscomb 6
No. 4 North Florida 7, Kennesaw State 1
Thursday
Lipscomb 10, NJIT 5
Stetson 2, Kennesaw State 1
Jacksonville 4, North Florida 3
Friday
Stetson 9, Jacksonville 8
UNF 7, Lipscomb 6
North Florida 6, Jacksonville 0
Saturday
Championship: Stetson 6, North Florida 0
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NCAA Super Regional Softball
Friday
5 p.m. (delayed after starting)
Jones County alum Kylie Bass threw five shutout innings and got into some situations in the sixth, giving way to Stratford’s Mary Wilson Avant, who ended the situation and survived a run in the seventh.
Saturday
Georgia 2, Tennessee 1, 8 inn.
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