Sunday's Report: Weigert, West Laurens/Perry/All-State golf, Upson-Lee obit, Signing-Dublin, Mercer/SoCon, Bacon; Braves, United, UGA, state/NCAA golf, Georgia Southern ⚾; more
Saturday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media. Updates will be noted, so check back.
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College
⚾ ⚾ ⚾ Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾
Georgia Southern 8, Troy 0, Sun Belt Tournament
UNCG 16, Mercer 5, Southern Conference Tournament
Coastal Plain
Pro
MLB
MLS
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Sports and the Texas school shooting
SF manager Kapler will skip anthem in protest of country’s direction
Column: Why do sports figures care more than elected officials?
Detroit Lions assistant: 18 year olds can buy guns, not beer?
Column: Falcons’ Smith offers “both sides”, but it doesn’t add up
Oklahoma softball pitcher throws no-hitter, pays tribute to victims
Honor Roll
Wiegert, West Laurens heads state golf coaches’ All-State teams
Central Georgia had its share of selections to the Georgia High School Golf Coaches Association All-State teams.
Bleckley County’s Lucy Wiegert was named Class AA girls player of the year, and was joined as a selection by Paul Andrews on the boys team.
Aren Flanders and Cade Wood on the boys team and Kate Belote on the girls team made it from West Laurens.
Raiders’ region rival Perry had Andrew Reyes and Carter Horton picked.
Upson-Lee’s Skye Perdue is an honorable mention pick in AAA girls.
Stratford’s Marshall Butler and FPD’s Avery Robinson made it in Class A Private boys and girls.
Signings
Dublin standout Zion Davis signed Wednesday to play men’s basketball at Savannah State.
Around/about Central Georgia
Former Upson-Lee basketball player dies in crash
Cameron Traylor, a key member of Upson-Lee’s consecutive undefeated teams and state championships in 2016-17 and 2017-18, died last week in a car accident in Upson County.
Also dead in the accident was Upson-Lee middle school custodian Grant King, who was to retire at the end of this school year.
The 22 year old graduated in 2018 and had attended Vincennes University in Indiana.
Traylor averaged 8.8 points and 2.7 assists as a senior in the Knights’ perfect 31-0 year in 2017-18. A year earlier, he averaged 4.1 points and 2.1 rebounds as a key role player on a 32-0 team. He also played football for the Knights.
Mercer hammered in SoCon elimination game
Barely two months ago, Mercer was on the fringe of the top 25 and considered almost a lock for the NCAA Tournament, as either the Southern Conference champ or as an at-large pick.
A brutal May and the season came to an end Saturday afternoon, though, with UNCG’s 16-5 eight-inning win over the Bears in an elimination game in Greenville.
Mercer ends the season at 40-18, after going 5-9 in May and 1-2 in the tournament.
A day after giving up the second-most runs in a conference tournament game, the Bears passed the program mark of 14, set in a 14-4 loss in 20189 to Samford in the 2018 finale, the last time the Bears were mercy-ruled.
UNCG opened the tournament with a 6-3 loss to top seed Wofford, and followed with a over Western Carolina (9-7), and beat Samford 8-2 Saturday night in an elimination game.
The Spartans (32-28) were outscored 37-22 when they were swept at Mercer in mid-April, but entered Saturday with five games of at least 16 runs, including against App State, ETSU, and WCU.
The Bears got off to a good start with a two-run first, but the Spartans exploded for six in the top of the third on seven hits and two errors, although one – a dropped foul ball preceding a groundout – had no impact. Pres Cavenaugh, though, made Mercer pay for another error with a grand slam.
The Spartans kept it going in the third, aided by a wild pitch and hit batter to get two more runs. Mercer battled back with two in the third on Treyson Hughes’ RBI triple and then a wild pitch.
UNCG erased that with three in the top of the fourth for an 11-4 lead on 15 hits.
Six Mercer pitchers combined for 173 pitches, 24 hits, six strikeouts and five walks. Six runs were unearned.
Houston County grad Treyson Hughes and J Rohrbacher each had two hits for Mercer. Three Spartans had four-hit games.
Macon loses at Savannah
It’s a new season, but a familiar result when Macon plays Savannah.
Macon’s 4-2 lead didn’t last long, Savannah getting four an inning later en route to a 7-4 win over the visiting Bacon.
Macon was outhit by only one, but had three errors that led to two unearned runs.
Hunter Varnadoe (Veterans, Middle Georgia State) got the loss. Harrison Aulds (FPD) had two hits for the Bacon.
Around/About Georgia/Southeast
Alcantara owns Braves with 14 strikeouts
Hot prospect Harris gets the call from Atlanta
Martinez returns, but United fall to Columbus
Contract talks pick up with Smart, UGA
MGLF: Tech jumps into a tie for 17th
MGLF: Georgia Southern drops eight spots to tied for 24th
Blank Foundation gives $50 mil to Shepherd Center
Four things more interesting than NIL stuff for SEC meetings
UGA in NCAA track championships
College Baseball
Southern Conference Tournament
Georgia Southern into Sun Belt finale
Tennessee pulls away late to pop Kentucky
Florida blanks A&M to reach finale
NC State powers past Pitt to ACC title game
UCLA wins 25-22 game on a walk-off dinger
Basketball/NBA/WNBA
Doncic, Mavs work on progress after best run in a decade
How Warriors’ run compares to past runs
Column: Hiring of Ham is nuts, and maybe perfect
Heat hacked at Green picking Boston to win series
Baseball/MLB/Baseball
Expensive fantasy football league: Pham suspended three games
Pederson has receipts, and a GIF
McNeil, Lindor lead Mets past Phils
Former Brave Keuchel headed for assignment
Golf/Tennis
Swiatek finds focus amid 31-match run
Scheffler has lead alone at Colonial
Auto Racing
Johnson amped for Indy 500 debut
Hamlin gets pole for Coca Cola 600
Elliott loses his mind, Logano warns Byron, Busch has ‘rare’ quality
Going green: IndyCar to use renewable fuel in 2023
Football/NFL/USFL/CFL
McCoy knows why Bieniemy isn’t a head coach yet, and it’s not color
Winston, Thomas show up at Saints workout
College Sports
AD: New media deal a priority for new Big 12 commish
Soccer
Real Madrid wins another Champions League
Fans gassed before Champions League final
Boxing/MMS
Davis retains lightweight belt
Around the nation/world
Sunday's Report: Weigert, West Laurens/Perry/All-State golf, Upson-Lee obit, Signing-Dublin, Mercer/SoCon, Bacon; Braves, United, UGA, state/NCAA golf, Georgia Southern ⚾