Saturday's Report: HS 🏈; Mercer's season opener, Russell Henley; MLB, golf, tennis, NFL, NASCAR, NBA

August 26, 2023 Central Georgia Sports Report

In Coverage: Central Georgia’s most complete high school football coverage

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High School

🥎 🥎 🥎Softball 🥎 🥎 🥎

Houston County 9, Sequoyah 0; Houston County 11, Campbell 3; Houston County 8, Allatoona 4

Pro

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ MLB ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Atlanta 5, San Francisco 1

🏀🏀🏀WNBA 🏀🏀🏀

Los Angeles 83, Atlanta 78

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Around/About Central Georgia

Late-round slump drops Henley from contention

For most of the round, Russell Henley was hanging around, falling no lower than a tie for seventh after a few front-nine bogeys slowed his momentum.

Then, with the leaders very much in sight, a double bogey and bogey in a four-hole span dropped Henley out of he top 10 after two rounds of the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

Henley is tied for 13th after a 1-over day that put him at 7 under for the tournament, nine shots back of co-leaders Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa.

How unique is the staggered scores format? Henley has shot 65 and 71, while Scottie Scheffler has a 71 and 65, yet is in third, two shots back.

He got into a big mess on No. 14. He teed off into the right rough, then went into a greenside bunker and into back to back roughs – he second shot went over the green and his third shot was short of the green - needing to hit an 44-footer for a bogey.

Three holes later, he missed a putt of a little more than six feet for par, three-putting the hole.

Henley had gone 13 straight rounds of 70 or less until Friday, joining 12 other players with 70 or higher.

Mercer makes ESPN debut Saturday in season opener

The game is in Alabama, but the Georgia team might have a little fan edge.

Mercer and North Alabama open the season Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Ala., a location about 30 miles closer to Macon than Florence, Ala.

The Lions went 1-10 last year, to the Bears’ 7-4 mark. This is the first meeting between the teams. UNA is in its second season as a full-fledged Division I and FCA program, moving from the ASUN to United Athletic Conference.

Mercer is ranked in four preseason polls: No. 17 in Athlon, No. 19 in Hero Sports, No. 20 in Stats Perform, and No. 22 in the American Football Coaches Association.

Mercer game notes

North Alabama game notes

The Bears have seven players from Central Georgia on the roster: freshman wide receiver Brayden Smith of Tattnall, sophomore wideout Travion Solomon of Northeast, freshman offensive lineman Justin Brett of Washington County, freshman offensive lineman Jose Gonzales of Warner Robins, junior offensive lineman Nate Howard of Mary Persons, graduate wideout Scooter Risper of Westside, and freshman wideout Tucker Mix of Jones County.

Howard is listed as a starter at right tackle, with backups Smith, Risper, and Solomon at receiver spots, Gonzales at left guard.

North Alabama has Central Georgians Justin Luke (soph. WR, Northside).

Mercer heads west and upward next week, visiting No. 22 Mississippi.

Around/About Georgia

A look at Smith and the Falcons’ preseason plan

Strider becomes first 15-game winner, leads Braves

UGA defensive plan plans to shine

Lovett has been ‘tremendous blessing’ for Bulldogs

Ogwumike has 100th career double-double to rally Sparks past Dream

MLB/Baseball

Ohtani to keep playing, his future and impending free agency murky after elbow ligament injury

He was in the lineup Friday