Saturday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: Henley still hanging; Gann pulls out of state am; nat'l honor for Bleckley County's Cranford; FVSU vs. Duke?; Braves & Bacon, + more
Saturday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
Henley hits some hiccups, still in the hunt
Former Georgia Tech standout Cameron Tringale (pronounced Trin-GAH-lee) had another solid round and is tied with Andrew Landry for the lead of the John Deere Classic in Illinois after three rounds.
Maconite Russell Henley had an inconsistent day and dropped into a tie for 25th.
Henley was on an early roller coaster, which he got back on later.
He birdied the first two holes and followed with two bogeys and a double bogey in the next four holes. That dropped him from near the top of the leaderboard, going from 1 under to 2 over for the day in six holes.
But he quickly regrouped and followed with par or better for the next eight holes, staying within six strokes of the lead. He returned to even for the day with a birdie on 14 only to double-bogey 15.
That was his second double-bogey of the day and third in two days, and put him at a 9-under 204 after three days.
Still, he is only seven strokes back of Tringale and Landry.
Henley’s struggles were quite tolerable compared those of Jhonattan Vegas, Friday’s leader who followed a 62 with a 76 to tumble into a tie for 33rd, but still only eight strokes back.
Spencer Ball, a senior at Mercer, is tied for third with a 21s, four strokes back of leader Jonathan Keppler and two behind Ben Carr.
From Thursday.
From Friday.
Gann withdraws from state amateur
After two quality rounds that had him in contention, Warner Robins’ Stan Gann had to withdraw from the Georgia State Golf Association’s state amateur tournament before Saturday’s third round.
He had a two-round 141, good for a tie for eighth.
That leaves a pair of FPD Vikings left to represent Central Georgia in the final round.
FPD grad and Georgia Southern golfer Wilson Andress shot a third-round 77 and is tied for 38th with a 226. Current Viking Luke Dasher is three strokes behind Andress, tied for 51st after a 76.
Bleckley County’s Cranford earns state honor
Longtime coach Shelly Cranford of Bleckley County is Georgia’s boys track & field coach of the year for the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for 2018-19.
Cranford is the head cross country coach and assistant boys track coach. Coaching distance in boys track, he helped the Royals to their first boys track state title in program history last spring.
Exhibition game for FVSU’s men will be memorable
A year ago, Fort Valley State played at Troy in a men’s basketball exhibition game.
That’s not being repeated this fall.
Instead, the Wildcats will take a test run against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Oct. 30.
FVSU opens the regular season on Nov. 8-9 against West Florida and Valdosta State in the SIAC/Gulf South Challenge.
The Wildcats have a second Division I exhibition game against Florida A&M along with a non-conference schedule including Georgia Southwestern, Winston-Salem State, Shaw, Shorter, and Embry-Riddle.
The Wildcats finished 7-22 last year, 6-11 in SIAC play.
Last year’s roster included Central Georgia underclassmen Leon Perry of Warner Robins and Brenton Cliette-Jordan of Westside.
Braves Report
Atlanta led and trailed and then tied it in the eighth en route to extra innings.
A leadoff walk in the 10th to Josh Donaldson followed by Nick Markakis’s grounder set up an RBI single to right by Ozzie Albies put Atlanta on top for good in a 7-5 win in a wild 10 over San Diego.
The 10th was wacky.
A walk to Austin Riley followed Albies’ hit and steal, and then Tyler Flowers smacked an opposite-field two-run double to seal it. Well …
Luke Jackson gave up a one-out solo homer to Manny Machado, his 23rd, in the bottom half. The Padres then got a runner on when Dansby Swanson bobbled a grounder and then threw wide to first.
Jackson then walked Hunter Renfroe, but Francisco Mejia advanced the runners with a long fly to right that Markakis made a huge and tough catch on at the oddly-structured wall, the shot only a few feet from being a walk-off.
Atlanta intentionally walked Manuel Margot to force San Diego to use a pitcher to pinch hit with the bases loaded and two outs.
On came Luis Perdomo, who threw an inning on Friday and is 1 for 2 hitting this year. It went to 0-2 to 3-2, then Perdomo fouled one off before sitting down with a perfect strike three.
Atlanta won its first series in San Diego since 2011.
Swanson, Markakis, and Albies had two hits each for Atlanta.
The Braves stranded a two-out single in the ninth, and Sean Newcomb got in trouble with a one-out walk and then a two-out walk, then sat down Fernando Tatis with a 97 mile-an- hour fastball to escape that trouble and force extra innings.
Julio Teheran left after six with a 3-2 deficit, fanning six with a walk and three hits, two of them homers.
Donaldson’s two-run homer gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead after one, the Padres getting two back in the fifth. The teams had one-run seventh innings – Ronald Acuna had a solo homer - and Atlanta tied it in the eighth on Riley’s sac fly to score Donaldson.
Next: Sunday, at San Diego, 4:10 p.m., FSSO; Monday, at Milwaukee, 8:10 p.m., FSSE; Tuesday, at Milwaukee, 8:10 p.m., FSSE; Wednesday, at Milwaukee, 2:10 p.m., FSSE; Thursday, vs. Washington, 7:20 p.m., FSSE
Around/About Central Georgia
Savannah blanks Macon
Three Savannah pitchers, including Marshall Thompson of Juliette, teamed for eight strikeouts in throwing a two-hit 7-0 win over visiting Macon.
The Bananas got all they needed with one in the second, adding two in the third and in the fourth.
It was the first time this season Macon has been shut out.
Macon hosts Lexington County on Tuesday, Savannah on Thursday, and Gastonia on Saturday with games at Gastonia on Wednesday and Savannah on Friday.
Around/About Georgia
Who’s joining UGA’s Circle of Honor (after finally graduating)?