Saturday's Report: The busy coaching carousel, Mercer survives, Bacon win; Braves, UGA, Falcons

May 28, 2022 Central Georgia Sports Report

News and notes of interest to Central Georgia, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

In Coverage: It’s been a busy spring of coaching changes. The first version awaits.

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D📰

College
⚾ ⚾ ⚾Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Georgia Southern 7, App State 1, Sun Belt Tournament

Kennesaw State 6, Lipscomb 4, ASUN Tournament

Mercer 2, The Citadel 1, Southern Conference Tournament

Samford 13, Mercer 10, Southern Conference Tournament

Coastal Plain

Macon 5, Florence 4

Pro

MLB

Atlanta 6, Miami 4

📰C📰O📰V📰E📰R📰A📰G📰E📰

Around/About Central Georgia

Mercer barely avoids a two-and-out at Southern Conference tournament

Six weeks ago, a 40-win season seemed an afterthought for Mercer, and it appeared a clear given that the Bears wouldn’t go two-and-out for a second straight year in the Southern Conference baseball tournament.

One happened, barely, and Mercer avoided one happening, barely.

Jackson Kelley turned in an epic and clutch pitching performance in relief to lead Mercer to a 2-1 win over The Citadel late Friday night in an elimination game.

Samford beat Mercer 13-10 earlier Friday.

The Bears (40-17) face UNCG on Saturday at 3 p.m. in another elimination game, after unbeatens Samford and Wofford play at noon.

Mercer took three from The Citadel in early April in Macon, by 8-2, 4-1, and 11-5, the Bears going 12-12 since then. The Bulldogs won 8-7 in 2021 to avoid a sweep.

The Citadel pulled within 2-1 after two, and the game rested on the arms of Kelley and Ben Hutchins after that. Hutchins went seven innings and throw a monster 119 pitches, 72 for strikes, leaving with 10 strikeouts and four walks, allowing two hits.

Kelley took over in the second for Josh Harlow, who left after hitting a batter with the bases loaded and two outs to force in a run. Kelley got a fielder’s choice grounder in three pitches to end the threat.

Both teams down in order in the third, the only time all game the offenses went out 1-2-3. and then Kelley retired the side in three in the sixth. But only three Bulldogs batted in the top of the seventh, Kelley getting a 6-3 double play lineout to end it.

Kelley blew past his longest stint of the season, four innings against Utah way back on March 25. He threw 101 pitches, with seven strikeouts, two walks and three hits.

It was quite the opposite of Mercer’s first game, when Samford’s bats put up 19 hits and stranded 14 runners, nine more than Mercer. The Bears got two-homer games from Bill Knight and Angelo DiSpigna to almost counter Mercer striking out 13 times.

The Bears actually led 5-4 after three only for Samford to put up outscore Mercer 8-5 in the fifth and sixth innings.

The 13 runs was the second-most allowed by Mercer in a conference tournament game, one less than in a 14-4 loss to Samford in 2018.

It was Samford’s third win in four games in just a few weeks. The Bulldogs and Bears closed the regular season last week in Birmingham, Samford winning 6-4 and 5-1 before Mercer won the finale 12-2.

Macon pulls ahead late to win home opener

Macon took a three-run lead in the seventh only for Florence to pull within one an inning later, but the Bacon held off the Flamingos for a 5-4 win in the home opener at Luther Williams Field.

Ray Douglas closed it for Macon, throwing two shutout innings in relief.

Former Tattnall standout Logan Fink (West Georgia) went 4 for 5 with three runs for Florence.

Macon travels to Savannah on Saturday.

Around/About Georgia

Acuna hit sparks Braves to win

A look at some UGA improvements

Morehead on NIL, Brooks on fundraising

Mariota wants to mentor as a starter

NBA/WNBA

Butler goes for 47, barely misses triple, as Miami evens series

Lakers hire Bucks’ assistant Ham as head coach

MLB/Baseball