Friday's Daily News 'n Notes: Mercer BKB schedule gets a bonus; NL East champs celebrate and celebrate (and get soggy); Central Georgia's Scoreboard
Friday’s Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
The Peach State College Football Report doesn’t appear. Catch up with Saturday’s preview page, with an extensive collection of Notre Dame-Georgia coverage.
Coming Saturday
A look at Georgia, Mercer, FVSU, GMC, Georgia State, and Kennesaw State’s games, including who from Central Georgia is on rosters. Look for it around lunchtime in The Latest Coverage.
Football, football, football
In The Latest Coverage is Central Georgia’s most comprehensive high school football coverage, with updates coming Saturday morning.
Memory Lane: Florida Gulf Coast at Mercer in hoops
The last time Mercer played Florida Gulf Coast in men’s basketball, the Bears won the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament championship, on FGCU’s floor, and went on to beat Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
Mercer was bolting to the Southern Conference, and just as the rivalry was getting good, it was gone.
But FGCU will visit Mercer in mid-November, one of the Bears’ six non-conference home games and arguably most attractive. The schedule was released Friday
Former conference rivals Kennesaw State and Georgia State – another rivalry that dissipated – will make their way to Hawkins Arena along with Florida Atlantic.
Also at Mercer: Columbia International and Milligan.
The Bears and new head coach Greg Gary will face some quality opposition away from home, with road games against St. John’s, Georgia Southern, plus UNC Wilmington, as well as four games in the Boca Raton Beach Classic, at Illinois-Chicago and at St. Bonaventure as part of the tournament with the final two games held at Florida Atlantic.
The Southern Conference schedule starts on Dec. 20 at home against Furman.
Scoreboard
Friday
High school
Softball
Veterans 11, Thomas County Central 2
The Warhawks got it down in the first two innings with 10 runs. Jenna Thomas, Kaylee Brown, Cailyn Snellgrove, Catherine Hickey, and Madison Bunnell each had two hits for Veterans, with Bunnell driving in three runs and Myers and Snellgrove two each. Myers got the five-inning complete-game win to lift Veterans to 5-1 in Region 1-5A.
College
VBALL:FVSU 3, Savannah State 0
VBALL: Mercer 3, Little Rock 1; Mercer 3, UT-Martin 0
VBALL: Truman State 3, Georgia College 1; Georgia College 3, Charleston (W.V.) 2
WGLF: Mercer, ninth, Mason Rudolph Women’s Championship
WSOC: GMC 2, South Georgia 1
Jessica Jackney and Sidney Palinkas scored for GMC.
WSOC: Mercer 1 Evansville 0
WSOC: Wesleyan 3, Mary Baldwin 2
Braves Report
Win a game, clinch a division title, and channel some
Mike Foltynewicz went eight innings, Ronald Acuna hit his 41st, and beloved Brave Brian McCann delivered a two-run homer in Atlanta’s 6-0 win that clinched the N.L. East title.
The last time the Braves won back to back division titles? McCann’s rookie year in Atlanta.
The Braves 19th division title tied the New York Yankees for the most since the division split entering the 1969 season.
Atlanta will likely host the N.L. Central champ at SunTrust in the series opener on Oct. 3. Then the Braves will try to win their first postseason series since 2001.
There was a little irony, the clincher coming against San Francisco and manager Bruce Bochy, who is retiring after the season and was honored in the second inning.
Bochy, who has led the Giants to three World Series titles in 13 seasons, cracked the 2,000-win mark this week.
Acuna and Ozzie Albies had two hits each, and Foltynewicz showed some offense with a single, coming around on Acuna’s homer.
Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Bostn Hall of Famer Carl, had three of the Giants’ four hits.
Foltynewicz improved to 8-5 after striking out seven with a walk and three hits in eight innings, Josh Tomlin needing 10 pitches to finish it off.
Next: Saturday, vs. San Francisco, 7:20 p.m., FSSO; Sunday, vs. San Francisco, 1:20 p.m., FSSO; Tuesday, at Kansas City, 8:15 p.m., FSSE; Wednesday, at Kansas City, 8:15 p.m., FSSE; Friday, at NY Mets, 7:10 p.m., FSSO; Saturday, at NY Mets, 7:10 p.m., FSSO; Sunday, at NY Mets, 3:10 p.m, FSSO
Yup, Folty’s still pretty good
Falcons Report
Coming Saturday
Around/About Georgia