By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

Baseball at Luther Williams

          The season for the Macon Bacon doesn’t start until May 23, with the home opener two days later.

          But Luther Williams Field will get a major workout this week when it hosts the GIAA state championships, with four games on Thursday and Friday, with as-needed games on Saturday.

          Action is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. each day.

          Gatewood and FPD are the lone Central Georgia teams left. Gatewood has the second game, against Edmund Burke, and FPD the last game each day (vs. Brookstone), the Vikings likely start cloers to 9 p.m. than the scheduled 7 p.m.

          Weather will be cooperative at least for the first day, sunny and in the 80s.  

 

Second Mercer baseball streak ending?

          Until last year, Mercer was among some elite teams having won at least 35 games 12 straight times, joining LSU and Vanderbilt.

          But that came to an end in 2023 when the Bears went 33-25.

          They’re in danger of another unattractive milestone.

          Mercer is 25-25 after being swept at Western Carolina last weekend, losing the series finale on  a walk-off homer.

          The last time Mercer failed to have an outright winning season was 2009 when it went 23-23. That’s also the last time Mercer was held to less than 30 wins.

          With four regular-season games left.

          The Bears are also on a rough Southern Conference Tournament streak, going 2-6 the last three visits. From 2015-19, Mercer went 18-9 in trips to Greenville.

          Another rarity: Mercer has yet to win a conference series this year, with this week’s visit by last-place The Citadel its last chance to change that.

          The Bears have taken non-conference series (two- or three-game series scheduled together, not separate overall series) from Toledo, Monmouth, Florida A&M, and Siena.

          And they’re an uncharacteristic 2-5 against in-state teams Georgia Southern, Kennesaw State, and Georgia Tech, with a game against Georgia canceled because of weather.

          Mercer, on its second pitching coach since Brent Shade was released after the 2021 season, is having rare offensive struggles.

          The Bears – whose Tuesday game at Georgia Tech was cancelled - are seventh in the Southern Conference in average (.282), but are first in fielding percentage and third in homers.

          They’re fourth with a 6.19 ERA and first with 14 saves, but last in opponents’ batting average at .304, and have given up 10 runs or more in 10 conference games.

          The Southern Conference Tournament in Greenville, S.C. starts Wednesday, Mercer likely playing at 7 p.m. against VMI.

 

Same ol’ at GHSA track

          When the GHSA state track meet rolls around, it’s safe to keep an eye on Bleckley County and GMC Prep  in team standings,

          GMC finished third in both girls and boys standings, while Bleckley County’s girls were a close second.

          Upson-Lee had a notable weekend, finishing fifth in 3A boys. Lamar County’s girls were sixth and boys seventh in A/I.

          Ella Gibbs of Bleckley County won the A/I 1,600 and 3,200 again, repeating from 2023. GMC’s Maria Knapp and Julina Council defended titles, as did Dublin’s girls relay teams.

          Conversely, it was an uneventful weekend for Central Georgia’s two largest counties, Macon-Bibb and Houston.

          Bibb County’s seven GHSA schools (14 teams) combined for 26 points, which trails the 33 points from Houston County’s five programs (10 teams).

          It’s a drop from last year for Houston County, which scored 96 points, albeit from three schools and four teams. Veterans’ boys finished fifth in 6A.

          The drop was bigger for Bibb County, which scored 16 points in 2023.

          For the second straight year, it was quiet in Class 5A for Central Georgia, which got points both years only from Jones County’s boys, whose hopes were bruised this year by some injuries to key competitors.

 

Catching up with …

          A major cog from 2014-2018 or four years in a 99-34 run that including a 30-3 season and top-25 ranking for Mercer women’s basketball is closer to her alma mater.

          Sydni Means, a two-time first-team All-Conference pick, is closer to her alma mater, being announced last week as an assistant coach at Clemson.

          Means was an assistant at Mercer before joining Angie Nelp, another Bears assistant under Susie Gardner, at Tulsa in 2021-22. Nelp took over to start that season, recently earning a contract extension.

          Means became the second former Bear at Clemson, joining transfer Summah Evans under new head coach Shawn Poppie, who succeeded Amanda Butler this spring.

          Ironically, Butler was head coach at Florida for years, and had one Susie Gardner as an assistant for three seasons.

          Gardner resigned as Mercer’s head coach in March, and announced last week she was returning to Florida as an assistant, under fourth-year head coach Kelly Rae Finley. …

          Two former Mercer men’s basketball assistants had a busy spring.

          Jeremy Luther, who worked from 2001-2007 under Mark Slonaker, is the new men’s head coach at Gardner-Webb. He was promoted after 11 seasons as an assistant, after going 82-80 as head coach at Newberry and Armstrong Atlantic, all after one years as the boys head coach at Windsor.

          Andrew Brown, who played at Mercer under Slonaker from 2003-06, was named the Big South’s Assistant Coach of the Year for 2023-24 as an assistant at Gardner-Webb, his fifth season at the school. But he moved on to join head coach Tim Craft at Western Carolina.

          He was a grad assistant at Mercer for two seasons under Bob Hoffman.