Thursday's Report: Scoreboard; GIAA soccer/Tattnall-Stratford, Houston County's Woods, signings (GMC, Taylor County), Middle Georgia State, Butts service, GHSA track; WLOCP, UGA, Falcons, Braves, Tech

May 11, 2023 Central Georgia Sports Report

Coming every day: The only place in Central Georgia with daily high school scores in basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, and the only place with college – Mercer, FVSU, Georgia College, CGTC, MGSU, GMC, Wesleyan – coverage (when info is offered).

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High School

⚾ ⚾ ⚾Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

GHSA Playoffs

Bleckley County 6, Social Circle 3; Bleckley County 6, Social Circle 4, 9 inn.; Next: Irwin County at Bleckley County, Tuesday
A three-run fifth put the Royals up in the opener of the Class A/Division I quarterfinal, Social Circle wounded by four errors. Eli Mullis whiffed seven in a 102-pitch complete game, with one walk and eight hits, going 2 for 2 with an RBI. James Fordham drove in two runs with two hits. Mullis was even bigger in the nightcap, drilling a two-run, one-out homer in the top of ninth for the lead. Clayton Beck finished off Social Circle in the bottom half, following a two-out walk with a first-pitch game-ending fly out. Beck, Mullis, Fordham, and J’Shun Height each had two hits for Bleckley County.

⚽ ⚽ ⚽Soccer ⚽ ⚽ ⚽

GIAA Playoffs

Boys

Tattnall 4, Stratford 3, 2 OT
The Trojans pulled off perhaps the school’s biggest sports upset of 2022-23 by knocking off the Eagles at home in a 4A semifinal. Slaton Berkner tied the game for Tattnall on a penalty kick, and Tattnall penalty set up a PK goal from Gavin Aguirre for a 2-1 Eagles lead, Driver tying it on a penalty. Kirvin Driver tied it for Tattnall on a free kick and the Trojans went ahead on another Driver score, but Matthew Cooper answered to tied and force overtime. Then, Berkner came through a again, his long goal winding its way to the back of the net for the winner with a minute left in double overtime.

Trinity Christian 4, Central Fellowship 2
The Crusaders will join their girls team in the AA finals.

🏫🏫🏫 College 🏫🏫🏫

⚾ ⚾ ⚾Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Georgia 9, USC Upstate 2
Kennesaw State 6, Georgia Tech 5
Tattnall grad Dawson Brown threw 1.2 innings of scoreless relief for the Jackets. FPD grad Hudson Mimbs went 0 for 3 for the Owls.

🥎 🥎 🥎Softball 🥎 🥎 🥎

Georgia Tech 8, Notre Dame 1, ACC Tournament

Louisiana-Monroe 4, Georgia State 1, Sun Belt Tournament

Western Carolina 3, Mercer 2, Southern Conference Tournament

Pro

⚾ ⚾ ⚾MLB⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Boston 5, Atlanta 2

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Honor Roll/Alumni Update

Central Georgian graduating this week from UGA

One former Central Georgia high school athlete is getting a diploma this week in Athens.

The undergraduate ceremony is Friday at 7:30 p.m. and graduate ceremony on Thursday at 9:30 a.m., at Sanford Stadium.

Former Houston County pitcher Jaden Woods is the lone Central Georgian among 99 to get their diploma. The sport management major is 3-2 with a 5.59 ERA in nine starts for Georgia, and is second with 46.2 innings and 61 strikeouts despite missing two starts.

Honor Roll

SB-Middle Georgia State’s Cosgrove SSAC tourney MVP

Signings

GMC Prep’s Colby Avery, Emma Evans, Ryley Taylor, and Levi Ward are heading across campus to continue their soccer careers, joining GMC JC.

Taylor County’s Jaliyah Zackery signed to continue her basketball career with Southwest Tennessee Community College. She scored 1,571 points and grabbed 907 rebounds for the Vikings.

Around/About Central Georgia

Memorial service set for Stratford’s Butts

Devin Butts’ high school alma mater will host a celebration of his life.

It will take place at 11 a.m. at Stratford.

An obituary states that burial will be at Macon Memorial Park Cemetary on Mercer University Drive.

The 22 year old 2019 Stratford graduate died Friday after collapsing while playing basketball on April 30, the previous Sunday, in Durham, N.C., where he attended and played for North Carolina Central. He remained in a coma in a local hospital until his death Friday.

State track meets start Thursday

Hundreds of athletes from around the state will converge on Albany, Columbus, Power Springs, and Rome as the GHSA state track meets get underway Thursday morning.

Hugh Mills Stadium Albany hosts 3A and 4a, with 5A and A/II at Kinnett Stadium in Columbus. McEachern High in Powder Springs welcomes 2A and 7A, with A/I, 6A, and adapted at Barron Stadium in Rome.

GMC’s girls in 2016 and Bleckley County’s boys in 2019 are the last Central Georgia teams to win titles.

The best Central Georgia team finishes a year ago were by GMC (third in boys), Putnam County and Washington County (fifth in boys), and Baldwin (fifth in girls).

GIAA soccer finals set

Five Central Georgia teams will play for GIAA state soccer titles this weekend at Mercer’s Betts Stadium.

Times were not posted on the GIAA website as of 2 a.m. Thursday.

Trinity Christian takes on Westminster Christian in the girls AA finale on Friday, followed by Stratford and FPD.

On Saturday, Trinity Christian’s boys play either Westminster or Augusta Prep. No score from their Wednesday game was posted yet overnight. Tattnall goes for its first GISA/GIAA title in school history against St. Anne-Pacelli to end the day.

Streaming access is available for $24.99 each day on giaa.tv. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students.

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Georgia-Florida skipping Jacksonville for a few years?

Smart: White House invite decline not political

Willock’s father files $40 million suit against UGA, Carter

Details on Morrissette’s multi-charges arrest

UGA’s Jarrett apologizes for racial remarks during draft

Ex-Brave Jansen gets 400th career save against Braves

WGLF-Georgia sweeps regional honors

BSB-Kennesaw State tops Tech

MBKB-UGA adds Metro Atlantic’s top scorer

MBKB-Tech picks up former four-star