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

May 20, 2022 Central Georgia Sports Report

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

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College
⚾ ⚾ ⚾Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Georgia Southern 5, Texas-Arlington 3

Georgia Tech 8, Pittsburgh 7

Liberty 9, Kennesaw State 6

Missouri 11, Georgia 3

Samford 6, Mercer 4

Texas State 8, Georgia State 7

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Honor Roll

Middle Georgia State repped on scholar-athlete baseball team

And in men’s tennis

And women’s tennis

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
          Mercer’s 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. …
          Georgia Tech has a good shot to make the NCAA Tournament, but it opened Thursday needing help for the ACC Tournament. Alas, Tech’s 8-7 win over Pitt combined with Due’s loss to Virginia Tech put the Jackets in. llow Jackets are battling a few other teams to make the 12-team field. …
          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. …
          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 men’s track and field at Emory.

Central’s 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.

He’ll 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 …

LA Times: And above and beyond the CPL and South

UGA’s financial report: cha-chiiiiiing

Surplus double that of anybody else

Falcons mailbag

BSB-Tech clinches ACC Tournament spot

Baseball/MLB

Boston’s Story belts three HRs, had two before first pitch

Roundup