Wednesday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: More Mercer academic honors; Braves Report; Georgia College pro BSB update; more local/area/state news
Wednesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
Mercer tops SoCon honor roll again
More than 300 Mercer athletes made the 2018-19 Southern Conference academic honor roll, Mercer leading the conference overall for the fifth straight year.
The Bears have done so since joining the conference, and this is the third straight year they passed the 300-member mark.
As per a Mercer release:
Six different Mercer teams led their respective sports – baseball, football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s golf and men’s soccer – on the honor roll.
A league-leading 33 Bears posted a perfect, 4.0 GPA.
The Bears also led with 79 student-athletes receiving the Commissioner’s Medal (3.8 GPA).
Mercer boasts 75 more student-athletes on the honor roll than any other team in the SoCon – ETSU is second with 228.
Braves Report
Dallas Keuchel got his first win as a Brave, thanks to a three-run third and a bullpen that gave up two hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 3.1 innings in a 5-3 win over the Cubs.
Freddie Freeman roped a one-out double and Josh Donaldson walked. Then Nick Markakis belted his seventh home of the year, to center to put the Braves in some level of control.
The Cubs outhit Atlanta by three, and their two errors didn’t lead to any unearned runs.
Freeman had two of Atlanta’s seven hits.
Next: Thursday, at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 p.m.; FSSE; Friday, at NY Mets, 7:10 p.m., MLB/FSSO; Saturday, at NY Mets, 4:10 p.m., FSSO; Sunday, at NY Mets, 7:05 p.m., ESPN
Bullpen’s not perfect, but it’s not the Titanic you’ve been led to believe
Braves are becoming great late?
Keuchel on free agency: sneaky
Around/About Central Georgia
Georgia College pro baseball update
Josh Taylor is throwing shutout relief for the Red Sox.
Tattnall baseball finishes with quality national rankings
GHSA Class A-Private baseball champ Tattnall is fifth in the final MaxPreps small-school national poll, after placing 44th in the website’s national poll.
The Trojans also were No. 24 in Collegiate Baseball’s final poll, and 47th in Perfectgame.com’s rankings.
Georgia College’s Graham up for national honor
Ashley Graham of Georgia College is one of nine Peach Belt Conference female athletes nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year.
There are nearly 600 nominees from all three NCAA divisions. Columbus State and Flagler had two nominees each while UNC Pembroke, North Georgia and Georgia College had one.
Graham is a three-time PBC all-academic pick and PBC Presidential Honor Roll member, graduating with a degree in exercise science.
She’s a two-time all-conference selection, and led the Peach Belt in shutouts, minutes, saves and saves percentage in 2018. She is fifth all-time in the conference with 348 career saves, and is 12th in shutouts and 13th in goals against average.
Around/About Georgia
Georgia State hires former assistant as head baseball coach
Competition in practice will be big for the Hawks
How much are UGA’s non-SEC opponents getting?
Ex-UGA WR Hollomon in the portal