Sunday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: Braves, Mercer, Georgia College, postseason info
Sunday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
Braves fall short, but it was close
Atlanta's offense again struggled, and a two-run rally in the ninth came up short in the Braves' 4-3 loss to San Francisco.
A crowd about 3,000 short of capacity on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon watched the Braves score first, give up a pair of 2-run innings in the middle, and battle in the ninth.
Ronald Acuna upped his average t0 .326 with a 2-for-4 day, and the Braves are 2-3 since he was called up.
College Baseball: UNCG takes advantage of walk-off error
Mercer bolted out to a 5-0 lead, UNCG tied it within two innings, and won 6-5 on a walk-off throwing error.
The final play went the opposite of the intended inning-ending double play when a throw from second went wide, allowing Austin Embler to score and hand the Bears their third conference series loss.
College Baseball: Georgia College sweeps another series
Georgia College ended the regular season very much in style with a 16-0 smacking of Winston-Salem State in seven innings.
The Bobcats improved to 39-10 and the Rams fell to 30-20. Georgia College opens the Peach Belt tournament on Friday as the top seed.
College Baseball: Peach Belt pools set
The pools are set for the Peach Belt Conference tournament in St. Augustine, Fla., but the schedule isn't.
Top-seeded Georgia College leads Pool A, with UNC Pembroke, North Georgia, and Lander. Second-seeded USC Aiken head Pool B, followed by Columbus State, Flagler, and Young Harris.
Each team will play one game Friday at Drysdale Field. Then Pool B moves to St. John's River State College in Palatka while A remains at Flagler. Everybody plays two games on Saturday to complete pool play, with the championship game on Sunday.
Georgia College, ranked eighth, is the defending tournament champ, going 4-0 as the third seed.
College Baseball: Georgia Tech sweeps Radford
It wasn't a blowout, but Georgia Tech's 4-0 win over Radford was certainly easier than the first two games in the series.
Tech pitching struck out 13 batters, and the Yellow Jackets didn't need walk-off heroics this time out, improving to 27-21.
College Softball: Furman spoils Mercer's senior day
Furman scored the game-winner in the top of the seventh and retired the side in the bottom half to nip Mercer 2-1 on senior day.
Meghan Rud had two his and Caroline Taylor a homer for the Bears, who are the two seed for the Southern Conference Tournament this week.
The daily scoreboard is updated, and GHSA playoff results and pairings are posted
Last week's signings
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.
Last 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.