Saturday's Report: Mercer falls, Signings (Crawford County, Perry, Taylor County, Bleckley County), Russell Henley; Braves, UGA/Stricklin, Braves, NCAA golf; NBA, MLB, gambling, colleges, NFL, golf

May 27, 2023 Central Georgia Sports Report

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D📰

🏫 🏫 🏫College 🏫 🏫 🏫
Links have either a story (with box included) or a box

Softball

Florida State 4, Georgia 2, Super Regional

⚾ ⚾ ⚾Baseball ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Mercer 8, The Citadel 1; UNC Greensboro 9, Mercer 5, Southern Conference Tournament

Pro

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ MLB ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Philadelphia 6, Atlanta 4

📰C📰O📰V📰E📰R📰A📰G📰E📰

Around/About Central Georgia

Mercer’s 35-win streak ends with elimination from SoCon tournament

A 4-3 lead after two innings and 5-4 after five was erased by UNC Greensboro’s five-run sixth and Mercer couldn’t rebound in a 9-5 loss Friday night in a Southern Conference Tournament elimination game in Greenville, S.C.

The loss ended Mercer’s season at 33-25, putting to an end Mercer’s streak of 12 straight 35-win seasons. It’s Mercer’s lowest win total since going 23-23 in 2009, Craig Gibson’s sixth year as head coach. Since then, Mercer has lost 25 or more only once, going 35-29 in 2019.

The Bears got a complete game from Josh Farmer earlier Friday in an 8-1 win over The Citadel, Mercer’s third complete game of the season and Farmer’s second.

Second-seeded Mercer went right into the loser’s bracket with Thursday night’s 16-14 loss to Wofford, who the Bears swept a few weeks ago.

Mercer fired second-year pitching coach Cory Barton on Monday, with the Bears’ ERA at 7.31, its highest under Gibson. The last ERA above 6.00 was 6.39 in 2009, the first year as pitching coach for Brent Shade, who was fired right after the Bears’ season ended in 2021 at the conference tournament.

UNCG had a walk, two singles, and a double for three runs before Mercer got an out in the sixth. Another walk and double led to a fourth, and a fly to right a fifth, the Bears going through three pitchers.

After getting a run in the fifth for a 5-4 lead, Mercer managed five runners in the final four at-bats, including two in the ninth.

Ty Dalley had two of Mercer’s six hits.

Mercer got some needed momentum with Farmer’s performance in the opener. He needed just 96 pitches – 71 strikes - in a sharp performance, striking out five with a walk in a six-hitter. Jozsef Rohrbacher went 4 for 5 and Trevor Austin 2 for 4 for Mercer, Bradley Frye adding two RBI.

Mercer took control with three in the fourth and two in the sixth, The Citadel breaking the shutout – which would have been the Bears’ first this season – in the seventh on a leadoff homer.

Farmer’s outing was needed, considering the Bears went through seven pitchers and 188 pitches Thursday night, going into Friday with a 7.44 ERA.

In Friday night’s finale, five Bears threw 191 pitches, and the season-ending ERA is 7.35.

Henley cruises into third round

Three bogeys within the first in 10 holes made for an angst-filled start to Russell Henley’s second round at the Charles Schwaab, but a better second nine assured a full weekend.

Henley sits at 1-over under through two rounds after a 1-over second round, the Maconite among a dozen – five ranked in the top 50 - tied for 39th, 11 shots back of leader Harry Hall.

It wasn’t a smooth round for Henley, but he did end with a positive, a birdie on 18.

Henley is in the field for next week’s Memorial in Dublin, Ohio.

Signings

Crawford County’s Judd Puckett has signed to play baseball at ABAC.

Perry’s Alivia Blanton is head to Georgia College for cross country.

Taylor County’s Sha’Kera Corbin has signed with Columbus State for track and field, the first Viking to sign for track.

Region 2-A/I Player of the Year Buck Hill of Bleckley County signed to play baseball at Brewton-Parker.

Around/About Georgia

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Georgia’s budget for 2024 is … a lot

More building in Athens: track and football

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