Friday's Daily News 'n Notes: Scoreboard; Georgia College honors; Central Georgians in NJCAA championship; Russell Henley; Houston County baseball; Bacon; NCAA baseball; Hawks, Braves; more

June 5, 2021 Central Georgia Sports Report

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

SCOREBOARD

College
Baseball
NCAA: Georgia Tech 7, Indiana State 6

Summer

Baseball

Spartanburg 15, Macon 3

Pro
MLB

Los Angeles Dodgers 9, Atlanta 5

N📰E 📰W 📰S 📰

Honor Roll

Georgia College is Peach Belt sportsmanship Institution of the Year

Bobcats’ Bochniak is PBC scholar-athlete of the year

Alumni Update

Central Georgians in national junior college football championship

Warner Robins and Central will be represented Saturday in the national junior college football championship game.

Maurice Gray, part of the Warner Robins state championship team of 2004, is the defensive pass-game coordinator and defensive backs coach at Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College. Gray has spent his post-Demons life in the area, from playing at Butler (Kansas) Community College to Oklahoma State. He has also coached at Butler, Coffeyville, and Highland. All are part of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

And recent Central grad and two-way standout Jalik Thomas has been getting snaps on defense. He has recorded stats in six of the Blue Dragons’ seven games. That includes a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Butler Community College.

He has eight kickoff returns for a 31.3-yard average, and seven tackles from his spot in the secondary.

Top-ranked Hutchinson faces No. 2 Snow (Utah) College at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark. Kickoff is 5 p.m., and it’ll be on CBS Sports Network.

Houston County softball alum earns all-conference

Around/About Central Georgia

Henley survives a triple bogey, and then not so much

The last hole for Russell Henley before weather stopped Thursday’s action at the Memorial?

A triple bogey.

Nightmares from such a disaster didn’t linger, and Henley stabilized the rest of the first round but couldn’t maintain it and missed the cut in Dublin, Ohio.

Henley’s front nine in the second round, after the first round was completed Friday, was a fun one: three birdies, three bogeys, three pars.

The cutline sat at plus 2 for most of the second round, and Henley bogeyed 13, and then 17 and 18 for a 75 to follow the first-round 73.

That dropped him to four over, two below the cut, and in a tie for 77th.

Houston County among top 25 baseball teams nationally

A week after some gritty pitching and head-turning defense along with just enough hitting put Houston County atop the GHSA’s Class 6A baseball mountain with a state championship series win over Lassiter, the Bears got some icing.

Baseball America listed Houston County as its No. 19 team nationally, The Bears are second in the state behind No. 17 Parkview..

Perfectgame.org moved the Bears up 15 spots to 23rd in its final poll, third in the state behind Buford and Parkview.

Mercer’s connection to top-10 Notre Dame baseball

Link Jarrett’s path to Notre Dame, a top-10 ranking, NCAA regional hosting, and ACC coach of the year, included a key stop at Mercer.

His third full-time job after graduating from Florida State and spending five years in the minors was at Mercer, after a few years at Division II Flagler and one at Florida State.

At Mercer in 2004 and 2005, Jarrett was the Bears’ recruiting coordinator. In the four years after he left for East Carolina, Mercer went 114-107. In the four years before he arrived, Mercer went 73-129. He was part of Craig Gibson’s first staff upon Gibson succeeding Barry Myers after the 2003 season.

Jarrett’s brother Brett pitched at Mercer from 1999-2002, and his 116 strikeouts in 2002 remains tied for sixth best all-time at Mercer.

The Irish beat Central Michigan 10-0 Friday in the South Bend regional, and play UConn Saturday night.

Many Es, little O doom Macon

Spartanburg held Macon to two hits, half the number of Bacon errors, and scored six unearned runs in a 15-3 romp at Luther Williams Field.

Ryan Archibald had both of Macon’s hits.

Macon’s six pitchers teamed for 12 strikeouts and 12 walks, while Macon batters were whiffed 17 times.

The 0-5 Bacon visit the 6-0 Bananas of Savannah on Saturday.

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Eight-run inning smothers Braves

UGA takes on No. 1 Oklahoma in WCWS elimination game

Embiid still iffy for Game 1

Hawks notes