Central Georgia Sports ReportAugust 19, 2022Comment

Friday's Report: Scoreboard (high schools, colleges), Macon County's Lane, Georgia College, Mercer, FVSU, Russell Henley, Rutland wins; Braves, UGA, Falcons, Kennesaw State; colleges, NFL, MLB, more

Central Georgia Sports ReportAugust 19, 2022Comment

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

In Coverage: The first polls of the year from The Sports Report. More high school football coverage coming throughout the day Friday.

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High School

Softball

ACE 17, Jordan 0
Dixana Sims sat down six in two innings. Karsyn Yates drove in four runs on two hits, including a homer.

Bleckley County 9, Swainsboro 3

Mary Persons 11, Howard 9
The Bulldogs scored two in the bottom of the seventh for the home win, surviving four errors. Olivia Woodgear and Mackenzie Hicks had two hits each for the Bulldogs. Nakeria Mallory and Syndee McElveen each had two hits for Howard, McElveen driving in five runs. The teams play again on Monday at Howard.

Pike County 13, Upson-Lee 5Rutland 7, Veterans 2

Spalding 15, Jasper County 8
Nine Hurricane errors led to eight unearned runs, Spalding aided by eight walks.

Volleyball

Houston County 2, Peach County 1
Perry 2, Peach County 0

College

Soccer

W-Mercer 1, Campbell 1
W-Middle Georgia State 2, Ave Maria 0

Pro

MLB

Atlanta 3, NY Mets 2

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Alumni Update

Former Macon County standout on HBCU Player of the Year list

Honor Roll

Georgia College puts one on PBC soccer team, prediction

Around/About Central Georgia

Henley rebounds with quality round

Last week, Russell Henley played decent golf and shot under par, but missed the cut.

There won’t be a repeat of the latter.

Henley is tied for sixth at the BMW Championship in Delaware after shooting a 4-under 67, with only one bogey.

Henley rose from 43rd to 29th in the projected FedEx Cup rankings. The top 30 players in the rankings after the tournament advance to the finale, the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

His lone bogey came on his final hole of the day, thanks to his second shot settling into a bunker on the right side. He missed a par putt of just under eight feet after a quality third shot.

That countered five birdies, and kept Henley on a quality streak of golf. Even last week, after some suddenly rare bogey issues, he was 1 under in missing the cut. Henley has 10 sub-70 rounds in his last 14.

A simple birdie on No. 15 earned him the No. 3 play of the day on ESPN’s SportsCenter and Golfweek/USA Today’s shot of the day.

His tee shot on the par-3 hole went right, bounced hard off the fringe rough and rolled on a down slope past the cup.

His putt was on target, starting off wide to the left and taking a perfect right turn and hitting the bottom of the cup, a hair to the right of center. Henley, among the tour’s least demonstrative players, couldn’t help but enjoy it. Amid the applause, he strolled around and flipped his club – a drop-the-mic moment – to the ground and held his arms out to the side.

Of the top 12 through a round, eight opened the tournament ranked outside the top 30, with Keegan Bradley taking the lead after a rond with a 7-under 64. He moved up 41 spots in the projected rankings.

Henley and Luke List tee off at 10 a.m. Friday.

Rutland opens season with shutout win

For the fourth time in a decade, Rutland opened the high school football season with a win.

And for the first time since 2014, the Hurricane got a shutout.

Rutland beat Towers 15-0 Thursday night at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex in the season opener for both teams.

It’s the 10th shutout in program history, and a nifty turnaround from last season’s opener, a 41-0 loss to Jeff Davis. Rutland beat Spencer, a new region opponent this year, 26-0 in 2014, the last blanking.

Towers, of Region 5-AA, went 3-7 last year, including its last shutout, 31-0 by Pace Academy in mid-October.

Rutland next visits Hawkinsville, then has a week off before playing Westside at Ed DeFore.

WSOC: Mercer ties Campbell in opener

FVSU’s ‘Meet the Wildcats’ set for Aug. 27

Wildcats’ Wilson on Player of the Year list

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Gutsy Grissom run lifts Braves to series win

Braves new contracts set them up for long term success

Hometowner Harris is happy

UGA practice update

Bower’s set to ‘get whacked’ on national title TD catch

UGA spent to get McClendon on staff