Central Georgia's Saturday Daily News 'n Notes: Middle Ga. State wins tourney title; United win, Braves lose; college baseball, lacrosse, and softball; and notable signings
Saturday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
Middle Georgia State comes from losers bracket to win tournament
Middle Georgia State fought off elimination and then rolled to a 19-11 win over Faulkner to win the Southern States Athletic Conference baseball tournament championship.
MGSU beat Mobile 10-3 earlier Saturday to reach the final game.
And the Knights wasted no time in re-taking control after the teams each had a 5-run inning early. The Knights weere up 12-8 after four, then pulled away with three-run innings in the eighth and ninth.
Jack Bell IV and Mikal Flores each had four hits, while Haydn Nechanicky and Dayton Beasley drove in four runs apiece as the Knights had 23 hits.
Houston County alum Blake Jackson went 2-for-5, and former Veterans pitcher Preston Sparks handled a somewhat tenuous 2-run ninth, coming in after four batters and with the bases loaded.
He hit the first batter to bring in a run and walked the next batter for another run, but got two strikeouts to end it.
Link also has the all-tournament team.
Braves remain unsparked with Acuna addition, lose to Giants
San Francisco scored 10 runs in a four-inning span to take control and roll to an 11-2 win over Atlanta.
Atlanta United continue streak, edge Chicago
Ezequiel Barco's debut goal helped spark Atlanta to a 2-1 win over Chicago on the road.
The United are on an eight-game unbeaten streak.
College Lacrosse: Mercer takes first SoCon women's lacrosse title
Mercer didn't play like a fourth seed with a sub.-500 record, rolling past third-seed Furman 18-8 to with the first Southern Conference women's lacrosse tournament, and get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
A watch party will be held Sunday at 8:30 p.m. at Amici Macon.
College Baseball: UNCG offense too much for Mercer
UNC Greensboro scored in six of eight innings and nearly doubled up Mercer in hits to top the Bears 9-3.
College Baseball: Georgia College takes another series
Georgia College took control with a 5-run sixth en route to a tough 12-5 win over Winston-Salem State to win the series on Senior Day.
Matthew Miller and Logan Mattix had three hits each, Brandon Purcell and Garrett Green driving in two runs apiece for the eighth-ranked Bobcats.
Logan Howard got the win in relief.
College Baseball: Georgia gets good pitching return from Smith
Kevin Smith's first outing since early March was a positive one as Georgia topped Missouri 7-1 to sweept the series.
College Baseball: Georgia Tech wins in 10 on walk-off HR
Baron Radcliff belted a three-run walk-off homer to give Georgia Tech an 11-8 win in 10 innings over visiting Radford.
College Softball: Georgia College falls in semis
Columbus State got all it needed in the first and Darby Demarest and Helen Snavely teamed for a no-hitter in a 4-0 win over Georgia College in a Peach Belt Conference tournament semifinal.
Brentwood alum Caroline Snider made the all-tournament team.
The No. 21 Bobcats are expected to get a bid to the NCAA Division II tournament, the field to be announced May 11.
College Softball: Mercer splits, gets second in conference
Meghan Rud became Mercer's all-time home run leader as the Bears split with Furman and took second in the SoCon.
The Bears lost the opener 3-2 and won the nightcap 5-1.
The daily scoreboard is updated, and GHSA playoff results and pairings are posted
This week's signings
Daloria Boone
Westside basketball standout Greg Holloway followed up on his committment and signed with Mississippi Valley State of the Southwest Athletic Conference, and alma mater of NFL star Jerry Rice.
Omar Jones signed to play football at Lackawanna College, a junior college in Pa. that often plays GMC. ...
John Milledge track standout Daloria Boone, who also had a stellar career at Baldwin and has been an elite competitor throughout her high school career, has signed to continue at Harvard.
JMA had baseball players Tyler Bass and Cody McCray sign, Bass with Johnson University in Tennessee, a National Christian College Athletic Association member, and McCray to Florida Southern, a Division II program.
Trojan wrestler Brandon Smith signed with Truett McConnell. ...
Val'Dazia Todd of Houston County has signed to play soccer at Agnes Scott in Decatur. ...
Four more Warner Robins football players signed letters of intent at a ceremony on Monday at the school. See story in This Week's Coverage. ...
Perry's Charisma Walker will take her softball pitching skills down the road to Middle Georgia State, signing last week.
This week's honor roll
GMC's Ashley Bunn is the GCAA softball coach of the year, and the Bulldogs put four on the all-conference first team and two on the second team.
First-teamers are infielder Lauren King and Natalie Johnson, pitcher Sarah Middleton, and DP/UTIL Cathleen Nugue. Second-teamers are infielder Carly Rigsbee and pitcher Mackensie Poynter.
The Bulldogs won the regular-season title with a 45-14 record, 23-5 in conference play. ...
Margaret Simmons of Middle Georgia State was named the SSAC softball player of the year and freshman of the year.
Simmons started in 46 games, batted .383 with 12 doubles, 11 homers, and 27 RBI.
Madison Bivings made the second team.
All-academic honorees for the Knights: Maggie Burkhalter, Meagan Coleman, Harley Roberts, Madison Staniloiu, Brittany Wilt, Manuela Bedoya, Sam Silva, Alejandra Wahn, and Mary Zimmerman. ...
Georgia College's Pedro Ecenarro was named the ITA Player of the year for the Southeast Region.
He went 14-4 at No. 1 singles and 14-8 in doubles. He has been ranked in the top 20 in the last four polls. ...
Middle Georgia State placed six players on the Southern States Athletic Conference all-conference baseball team, led by Houston County grad Blake Jackson and Jones County's Crandall Poole.
Joining Jackson on the first team: pitcher Austin Goff, catcher Dayton Beasley, second baseman Jacob Durant, infielder Trenton Nash, and outfielder Zach Cornell.
Second-teamers along with Poole is outfielder MJ Rookard.
Austin Goff earned a gold glove and Jackson Braden made the all-freshman team, and Nash made the Champions of Character team.
Cornell, Kevin Smith, Alex Snider, Preston Sparks of Veterans, and Jacob Walden made the all-academic team.
The conference tournament begins Wednesday. 14th-ranked MGS tied with Mobile for second and is the third seed. The Knights play Blue Mountain at 1 p.m.
The tournament is in Montgomery, Ala. ...
Former FPD standout Wesley Hanson of Valdosta State was named the Gulf South Conference freshman golfer of the year.
He tied for 25th in the conference championship and helped the Blazers to third in the tournament. ...
Two Peach Belt players of the week are from Georgia College.
Jessie Morris is the softball freshman of the week, going 2-1 with a 1.66 ERA and 10 Ks in 12.2 innings, including a solid outing against Columbus State
Charlie Hecht is the baseball pitcher of the week after throwing his second career complete-game shutout, over No. 5 Columbus State, with 10 strikeouts.