Central Georgia Sports ReportMay 04, 2021Comment

Monday's Daily News 'n Notes: Mercer, FPD tennis/GHSA; GHSA/Valdosta/reclassification; Hawks win, Acuna honored, Falcons

Central Georgia Sports ReportMay 04, 2021Comment

Monday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

College players of the week

Southern Conference baseball: Mercer’s Delano

Around/About Central Georgia

SCOREBOARD

High school coaches should send box scores and/or game information to centralgasports@gmail.com within 30 minutes of completion for expanded coverage. The more info provided, the more info to give people.

Scores are from Twitter, email, and MaxPreps. Wake up to the information update with details and links.

High School
GHSA
🎾🎾🎾 Tennis 🎾🎾🎾
Girls
A Private-FPD 3, Brookstone 2; vs. Mt. Paran, Saturday, championship, Rome

⚾⚾⚾ Baseball ⚾⚾⚾
GHSA
4A-West Laurens 5. LaGrange 2; LaGrange 4, West Laurens 3; at WL, Tuesday, 2 p.m.
The Raiders were outhit by one and stranded on more runner, but took advantage of mistakes for two unearned runs. Matthew Mebane and Gunner Jeffers had two hits and Jeffers two RBI for the Raiders, who got an efficient complete game from Colton Scott (2 Ks, 0 BBs, 8 hits). They barely missed the sweep in the nightcap, taking a 3-2 lead with two in the top of the seventh. But LaGrange, which survived a whopping five errors, opened the bottom of the seventh with a single, hit batter, and single to set up the walk-off sac fly to right. Both teams were held to four hits, with both two-man staffs striking out eight and walking three. Scott drove in three runs, while Carson Estep had two hits.

4A-Troup County 9, Perry 4; Tuesday, noon
The Panthers had a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning of the delayed-by-lightning opener, and a 4-1 lead after three was gone in the fourth, for good, with four Troup County runs in the delayed-by-weather opener. The hosts added three insurance runs in the fifth. Tanner Knowles and Tristen Freis had two hits each for Perry, Freis with three RBI.

GISA
John Milledge 15, Notre Dame 0
Twiggs County 9, Solid Rock 6; Twiggs 13, Solid Rock 3
Westfield 6, Trinity Christian 4; Westfield 10, TCS 0

Pro
NBA
Atlanta 123, Portland 114

FPD joins Stratford in tennis championships

FPD had to travel to Columbus and pray for workable weather for Monday’s GHSA Class A Private girls tennis semifinal.

They came home with a 3-2 win and a trip to the championships.

FPD joins Stratford’s boys as Central Georgia’s representatives in Saturday’s championships in Rome. The Eagles rolled past Paideia 4-o on Friday.

Girls action starts at 9 a.m. and boys play at 1 p.m. Stratford is going for its fifth title in six years, and FPD for its first.

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Valdosta and reclassification on GHSA meeting agenda

The GHSA Board of Trustees meets Tuesday morning with a short but hefty agenda: Valdosta appeals recent penalties, and a chat about reclassification.

Reclassification may be less active this go round after the GHSA’s first-vote last month to continue for two more years the lineup as it is. A second vote at least 30 days after the first one must be taken before it becomes official.

The only major change in the last reclassification period was splitting Class A in to public and private regions, as it has done with the playoffs. Had the COVID-19 pandemic made the 2020-21 school year so unsettled with sports and travel and cancelations, reclassification might be a bigger topic.

And Valdosta High principal Janice Richardson is expected to argue for a reduction in the major penalties the school was handed last month for actions of head coach Rush Propst in terms of recruiting, financial irregularities, and many other things that have brought brutal publicity to the school almost since his hiring.

The school was fined $7,500 overall, four players are ineligible for GHSA competition for one calendar year, wins in which the players participated were forfeited, and the football team is on probation for 2021, including no postseason.

The Valdosta City Schools board is also battling a lawsuit by fired head coach Alan Rodemaker, as well as a reported $800,000 settlement approved by the system’s insurance company but voted down by the board.

The school has named new assistant coach Shelton Felton as the interim head coach. It’s unlikely that move will give Valdosta much help in its arguments.

Felton has shown little career stability in the past half-decade – working at Crisp County, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Akron, and Tennessee – and getting fired at Tennessee after last season for a hefty list of violations charged to former head coach Jeremy Pruitt and the staff.

And Felton worked with Propst at Colquitt County in 2013-14.

The school is conducting a search for its seventh coach this century, four more than crosstown rival Lowndes has had in the same period.

Smith focused on D on first Falcons draft

Fifth year picked up for Calvin Ridley

But not for TE Hurst?

Collen heading from the Dream to Baylor

Acuna the NL player of the month

NBA/WNBA

‘Point guards don’t do what (Westbrook) does’

Ionescu amped for return to hoops

Baseball

From debut to suspended for PED violation