Tuesday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: GMC wins national golf title; Mercer baseball alums update; hefty Braves Report; Roddy White into Ring of Honor; and more
Tuesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
GMC celebrating another national golf title
Four GMC golfers shot under 80 on the final day to lead the Bulldogs past Sandhills (N.C.) for the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III men’s golf national title last week.
GMC, Sandhills, and Minnesota State jockeyed for the top spot throughout the four-day tournament in Chautauqua, N.Y.
GMC topped Sandhills by a stroke on the final day, and overall. The Bulldogs shot a 1,235, to 1,236 for Sandhills and 1,241 for Minnesota State.
Sandhills’ Trey Capps was the medalist with a 292, while GMC’s Dusty Watts was second with a 298. Teammate Luke Ninneman finished sixth (307), and Austin Quillian was 18th.
Columbus State finished fourth, Minnesota State’s fifth-place finish the eighth straight top-five finish.
Mercer minor leaguers are on a roll
Kyle Lewis is showing no signs of the knee injury that stopped his pro career barely after it got started, and of the one that interrupted his 2018 season.
The 11th pick of the 2016 draft is with Arkansas in the Class AA Texas League, and just went through a seven-game stretch in which he batted .440 with two doubles, a homer and 10 RBI.
He’s batting .255 with four homers and 37 RBI in 55 games, with a pair of steals. Lewis currently owns a career .257 average and has 23 homers and 146 RBI in 220 games in his minor-league career.
FPD grad Austin Cox is the latest South Atlantic League pitcher of the week from May 27-June 2. He threw 6.1 shutout innings, fanned seven, and gave up a hit.
Cox, playing in Lexington, Ky., had a no-hitter of five-plus innings against West Virginia, and extended his shutout innings streak to 12.1.
He is 4-3 with a 3.07 ERA, 67.1 innings in 12 starters, 71 strikeouts and 20 walks, giving up a .209 opponents batting average.
Relief pitcher Robert Broom, drafted a year ago, has been bumped up to Class AA Akron, from Lynchburg in the Carolina League after going 1-1 with a .36 ERA with 35 strikeouts and only nine walks in 24.2 innings.
Opponents this season are batting .156 against Broom, who was picked for the Carolina League all-star game a couple days after his promotion.
They’ll be joined soon enough by last week’s draft picks, pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long and Kevin Coulter. Neither, however, has signed yet.
Braves Report
After a rain delay of nearly two hours, the game was called after eight innings, giving Atlanta a 7-5 win.
Atlanta scored four in the second, all on solo homers, the Pirates eventually tied it, and the Braves eased ahead for good with three in the sixth on Brian McCann’s second homer of the night.
Mike Foltynewicz gave up four runs in five innings, with five strikeouts and four walks.
Earlier Tuesday, Atlanta recalled A.J. Minter from Gwinnett to replace Kevin Gausman, now on the 10-day IL with plantar fasciitis. Atlanta also signed first-round pick Braden Shewmake.
Next: Wednesday, vs. Pittsburgh, 7:20 p.m., FSSE; Thursday, vs. Pittsburgh, 12:10 p.m., MLBN/FSSE; Friday, vs. Philadelphia, 7:20 p.m., Facebook/FSSO; Saturday, vs. Philadelphia, 7:20 p.m., FSSO; Sunday, vs. Philadelphia, 1:20 p.m., MLBN/FSSO
Keuchel wouldn’t mind hanging around awhile
Around/About Central Georgia
Macon tops Lexington County
Homestanding Lexington County couldn’t make a 4-0 first inning stand up, Macon getting three in the third and two in the fifth for the win, despite being outhit 10-7.
Ben McConnell led Macon with three hits, with C Estrada and Zach Cornell driving in two runs each.
Wyatt Beakler, Macon’s second of five pitchers, got the win in 3.2 innings, with four strikeouts and a walk with no runs.
Macon hosts Martinsville on Wednesday and Savannah on Thursday.
Around/About Georgia
Roddy White into Ring of Honor? He says
Then the team made it official … and he was kinda punked
And he has no worries about the contract