Friday's Report: Scoreboard; Honor Roll-Middle Georgia State, Signings-Stratford/Central, Henley/PGA; Savannah Bananas; UGA, Falcons, Tech; MLB, NBA, NASCAR, golf, Fisher-Saban/colleges
Thursday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
š°Sš°Cš°Oš°Rš°Eš°Bš°Oš°Aš°Rš°Dš°
College
ā¾ ā¾ ā¾Baseball ā¾ ā¾ ā¾
Georgia Southern 5, Texas-Arlington 3
Texas State 8, Georgia State 7
š°Cš°Oš°Vš°Eš°Rš°Aš°Gš°Eš°
Honor Roll
Middle Georgia State repped on scholar-athlete baseball team
On The Beat
ć°ļø
On The Beat ć°ļø
State college softball
Two teams are in the NCAA Tournament and get going Friday.
Georgia (40-16) faces Liberty (43-16) at 12 p.m. in Durham on ESPNU. Georgia Tech battles Wisconsin at 2 p.m. in Gainesville on ESPNU.
Also: Auburn vs. Louisiana at Clemson, Chattanooga vs. Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Tennessee vs. Campbell at Knoxville.
State college baseball update
Mercerās big road trip to Samford is off to a rough start.
The Bears (38-15/11-8) fell into a tie for second with the Bulldogs (25-26/11-8), just ahead of UNCG (26-27/10-9), an 8-2 winner over Western Carolina (25-27-1/9-9-1).
WCU has the tiebreaker over Mercer, and Samford would do the same with a win Friday, so the Bears could drop to fifth. Mercer wins any tiebreakers, if needed over ETSU and UNGC.
The Southern Conference Tournament starts Wednesday in Greenville. ā¦
Georgia Tech has a good shot to make the NCAA Tournament, but it opened Thursday needing help for the ACC Tournament. Alas, Techās 8-7 win over Pitt combined with Dueās loss to Virginia Tech put the Jackets in. llow Jackets are battling a few other teams to make the 12-team field. ā¦
Georgia (34-19/14-15) is tied with Vandy and Florida for second in the SEC East after losing 11-3 to last-place Missouri, while Auburn is third in the West. The tournament starts Tuesday. ā¦
Sixth-place Georgia State (30-24/15-13) has No. 13 Sun Belt leader Texas State (42-11/24-4) down late until losing by one. Second-place Georgia Southern (36-17/21-7) held off 10th-place Texas-Arlington 5-3.
The 10-team Sun Belt Tournament starts Tuesday in Montgomery.
Kennesaw State (31-23/18-10) moved into a tie for first in the ASUN East, now sharing the lead with Liberty after beating the Flames (32-19/18-10) Thursday. The tournament starts Tuesday in Fort Myers.
Signings
Stratford multi-sport standout Gunn Bush signed for menās track and field at Emory.
Centralās Christian Hill and Tyler Gilbert have signed to play baseball at Rust College, an NAIA program in Mississippi.
Around/About Central Georgia
Henley steady in PGA Championship start
Russell Henley countered two first-nine bogeys with two second-nine birdies for a solid opening round at the PGA Championship in Oklahoma.
The Stratford grad avoided any ditches, with six pars between the early bogeys, and then had five pars between the birdies for a 70.
That put him in a tie for 27th, that group at even and five shots behind leader Rory McIlroy. Another 18 players are 1 over, putting 55 within six shots of the lead.
Heāll start off on No. 1 at 9:06 a.m. on Friday.
BSB-Mercer falls at Samford in series opener
Around/About Georgia
The Savannah Bananas going above and beyond just baseball ā¦
LA Times: And above and beyond the CPL and South
UGAās financial report: cha-chiiiiiing
Surplus double that of anybody else
BSB-Tech clinches ACC Tournament spot
Baseball/MLB
Bostonās Story belts three HRs, had two before first pitch
Sports and social/racial awareness/ mental health
Why Jay Graham went from SEC to middle-school coaching
Grahamās abrupt exit at Alabama had signs
NBA/WNBA/Basketball
Auto Racing
Documentary explores feelings toward Kyle Busch
Larson wants to give Indy 500 a shot
Kurt Buschās ātortious actā leads wife to file for divorce
Golf/Tennis
McIlroy solid in first-round lead at PGA
Top players didnāt play like it
PGA notes: Daly does Daly to get it started
Mickelson ānot missedā at dinner
Harrington criticizes ālong hanging fruit of moralsā in Saudi debate
College Football
Fisher fires back hard at Saban
South Carolina latest with fancy LED stadium lights
Obit: Lacewell left mark at several stops
Mora thrilled to join UConn coaching tree
Colleges: NIL and portal
In the NIL world, does the college town still matter?
College Sports
Three injured in Murray State softball bus crash en route to regional
Hockey
Champ Tampa Bay wins in final four seconds
Around the nation/world