By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

          It’s not turning out be an overly successful spring for Central Georgia high schools.

          There are no teams left in tennis, with West Laurens as the lone semifinalist and falling to LaGrange in GHSA Class 4A.

          There were no GHSA soccer teams making any championship, GMC’s boys the solo semifinalist, and the last two GISA semifinalists were eliminated Saturday.

          There are two GISA baseball finalists, John Milledge in Class AAA and Gatewood in AA. John Milledge is awaiting Monday’s completion of the Westfield lost at Pinewood Christian on Monday in a Class AAA series finale, and Gatewood topped Piedmont on Monday in AA.

          The GISA baseball finals for Class AAA and AA are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Grayson Stadium in Savannah. Baseball is the final GISA event of the year.

          Four area teams started the week alive and at home in the GHSA baseball quarterfinals: Houston County, Perry, Bleckley County, and ACE.

          The last one standing was ACE, which hosted Social Circle on Wednesday in the deciding game of their Class A Public series. Alas, Social Circle won 5-4, eliminating the final Central Georgia team.

          Nationally ranked Houston County split with Buford, and then was surprisingly thumped at home in the third game on Tuesday. Bleckley County lost both games, at home, in Class AA, as did Perry in 4A.

          The semifinals start Monday, with the finals beginning on May 19 at Gwinnett, Truist Park, Rome, and Georgia Southern.

          Sectional track has been completed, with the state meets starting Thursday in Albany, Atlanta, Carrollton, and Columbus, with scores of Central Georgians involved.

          Many Central Georgia teams and individuals have qualified for the GHSA state golf tournament on May 16-17 at various sites throughout the state.

 

GISA scheduling issues

          The GISA had to make some adjustments to soccer, with a notable and questionable explanation.

          All year, the plan was to have the semifinals last Friday and finals on Saturday at Mercer. There were to be games each day at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m., and 8 p.m.

          Members were reminded of the schedule in a May 3 email.

          But soon after, everything changed.

          There was no public or social media posting about the changes, simply a note on the organization’s website: “Date/Time TBD due to Rainout. The DATES & TIMES for all Championship Games will be determined after the Semi-Final Games are completed on Saturday.”

          And eventually the changes were made on MaxPreps.

          But the quarterfinals had been completed the weekend before, April 29-30, so there were no matches scheduled until Friday and Saturday. And there was almost no rain during the week, none on Friday or Saturday in Macon, which wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because there was no soccer scheduled until Friday.

          The problem: The GHSA was holding the Class 6A championships on Friday at Mercer.

          The last semifinal on Saturday was completed before 10:30 p.m., but the GISA website’s soccer pages as of Wednesday afternoon still hadn’t been updated with semifinal scores nor any indication as to when and where for the championships.

          When and where were they? Tuesday at Mercer.

          The association’s first Tweet since late April came Tuesday afternoon, an hour before the girls final, when it noted the championship schedule. It went nearly two weeks between Facebook posts, none of which noted the changes.

The GISA year comes to an end with the baseball finals this weekend.

 

GHSA girls soccer championship scores
Class 6A: Lassiter 1, Cambridge 0, OT (3-2 PKs)
Class 5A: Chamblee 8, Midtown 1
Class 3A: Westminster 4, Greater Atlanta Christian 0
Class AA: Lovett 2, Pace 1
Class A Public: Social Circle 6, Commerce 4
Class A Private: Pinecrest 1, Holy Innocents 0

GHSA boys soccer championship scores
Class 6A: Lassiter 3, Dalton 1
Class 5A: Johnson-Gainesville 4, St. Pius X 2
Class 3A: Greater Atlanta Christian 3, Oconee County 1
Class AA: Pace 1, Lovett 0
Class A Public: Dalton Academy 4, Drew Charter 2
Class A Private: Atlanta International 5, Athens Academy 3

GISA baseball finals schedule
Grayson Stadium, Savannah
Class AAA
John Milledge vs. Pinewood Christian
Friday 7 p.m.; Saturday 1:30 p.m., 6 p.m.
Class AA
Gatewood vs. Terrell
Friday, 4 p.m.; Saturday 4 p.m., 8 p.m.

Postseason notes

          Central Fellowship’s girls won a GAPPS (Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools) state soccer title on Saturday, beating Calvary Christian. …

          The final GHSA events for the four Macon private schools departing the GHSA will be golf next week, following track this weekend.

Top-3 track seeds from Mount de Sales, FPD, Tattnall, and Stratford girls: FPD’s Claire Harrison and Destinee Lanham in discus; Harrison in shot. For the boys: FPD’s Brady Roper and Stratford’s Keondre Glover in high jump; Stratford’s Carson Chambless in pole vault; Glover in triple jump; Roper in 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles.

The Class A Private meet is at McEachern High in Powder Springs.