Thursday's Report: 🏈 predictions, state poll, HS scores, Quintez Cephus, Russell Henley; Falcons/Judon/2-deep, UGA, Braves, Dream; LLWS, MLB, college 🏈SEC/ACC/national, WNBA, golf

August 22, 2024 Central Georgia Sports Report

Waking up to The Sports Report is like waking up to the paper back in the day. Do it every day, tell people where the coverage is: here.

📰S📰C📰O📰R📰E📰B📰O📰A📰R📰D

High Schools

Softball

ACE 14, Crawford County 2, 4 inn.
Laney Bridges went 4 for 4, including a triple, to lead 14-hit ACE. Sophie Denney drove in 4 runs, while Sydney Collins, Avery Stone, Reese Thames and Madisyn Haller each had 2 hits, Collins adding 2 RBI.

Columbus 6, Lamar County 1

Peach County 17, Rutland 2, 3 inn.
The Trojans moved to 7-0 behind a strong effort from the bottom of the lineup. Saniya Martin, Ta’Mori Hollinshed and Taleyah Barable accounted for 5 of Peach County’s hits and 7 RBI. Alyssa Crozier fanned six in 3 innings.

Westfield 12, Schley County 5
Cate Raines belted 2 homers and drove in 4 run for Westfield, which racked up 16 hits. Madison Hammock had 4 hits, with 2 hits from Chloe Hill and Riley Nelson.

Pro

⚾ ⚾ ⚾MLB ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Philadelphia 3, Atlanta 2

📰C📰O📰V📰E📰R📰A📰G📰E📰

Around/About Central Georgia

MLB.com releases video feature on Macon RBI

Henley set for next playoff tournament

There’ll be some suspense for Russell Henley in the second tournament of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

First, he’s never played at Castle Pines in Castle Rock, Colorado, south of Denver. The PGA Tour is making its first trip to the state since 2014, and first to this course since 2006.

Second, the first hole is a par-5 622-yard offering, tied for the toughest on the course.

Henley has had his share of first-hole and par-5 bogey issues, and hopes to avoid them in the playoff tournament.

Henley finished tied for eighth last year and tied for 35th in 2022.

Henley tees off Thursday at 12:50 p.m. with 18th-ranked Sam Burns.

The Stratford grad is ranked 17th in the FedEx Cup rankings and 14th in the Official World Golf Ranking, all but putting him in next week’s playoff finale in Atlanta as the top 30 advance.

The biggest drop in the FedEx rankings last week was 11 spots, Keegan Bradley falling from 39th to 50th to barely make it. Three players made big jumps – topped by Viktor Hovland from 57th to 16th – to advance.

Henley is ranked in the top 20 on the tour in several categories, including: second in sand saves and 3-putt avoidance, 11th in driving accuracy and total putting, 12th in putting average, 17th in scrambling, 18th in shots gained total, 19th in bogey avoidance, as well as in the top 15 in four approaches out of 14 categories.

He’s also 20th in winnings at $4.85 million.

Henley per-round numbers are notable: 60th for round 1, 137th for round 2, 73rd for round 3, and 14th for round 4.

Alumni Update

Stratford’s Cephus still with hanging with Houston

Former Stratford and Wisconsin standout Quintez Cephus hopes to get more chances to hang with the Houston Texans this week.

The Texans play the L.A. Rams – with former Peach County standout Demarcus Robinson - at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Houston signed the receiver, suspended for 2023 for gambling, on July 18. He spent a short time with Buffalo in April.

He caught three passes for 18 yards in a 20-12 win over Pittsburgh, but none in last week’s 28-10 win over the New York Giants.

The Texans currently list 11 receivers, with Cephus fourth at one of three spots.

Around/About Georgia

Judon on contract: Falcons don't know me, can't demand something I haven't worked for

Falcons release final depth chart before 53-man roster decisions