Bulloch Academy will take on Tiftarea Academy this week in the second round of the GISA Class AAA baseball playoff.
The Panthers, the third seed from Region 3-AAA, upset Mount de Sales, the second seed from Region 2-AAA, on Friday 5-4 and 7-3 at Cavalier Fields in Macon. Tiftarea will host the Gators in Chula, Ga. for a best-of-three series on May 10-11. The first game is set to start Thursday at 2 p.m. with the second game of the doubleheader to follow at 4:30 p.m. Game three, if necessary, will be played Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Bulloch Academy, 11-9, backed into the playoffs as the fourth seed from Region 1-AAA with a region win over Augusta Prep on April 24. On Thursday, the scrappy Gators stunned The Weber School, the top seed from Region 4-AAA, 2-0 and 12-11 in eight innings.
Game One of the three-game series is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. Game Two will follow immediately after and Game Three will be played Friday at 4:30 p.m. if necessary.
Brown, Swope on watch list
After combining for nearly 2,000 rushing yards last year, Robert Brown and Dominique Swope were added to the College Football Performance Running Back Award Watch List for the upcoming 2012 season.
The CFPA awards, which honored Laron Scott as the top kickoff returner in the FCS last year, strives to provide a scientific bases. Award winners are picked on the criteria of how much they increase the overall effectiveness of their teams.
Brown rushed for 937 yards on 136 carries in 13 games and posted a 6.9 average per carry. The rising junior tallied 100 or more yards in three of the first five games and posted a pair of 90 yard games against Western Carolina and The Citadel. Brown also tallied five touchdowns on the season and just missed the second 1,000 yard season of his career.
Swope carried the ball less than 10 times in all but one game before breaking out for 165 yards on 27 carries at Wofford. He went on to tally 153 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown, at Alabama and 255 yards in the playoffs against Old Dominion. Swope finished the season with 1,023 yards and seven touchdowns and averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
SHS girls 12th in state
The Statesboro girls placed 12th at the Class-AAAA State Meet in Albany this past weekend. Alisia Jenkins placed 2nd in the long jump with a leap of 18-2. She also placed 8th in the triple jump with a leap of 37-0.
Shanice Walker placed 5th in the 300 hurdles with a time of 45.61.
The boys will compete at state Thursday through Saturday in Jefferson, GA.
Honors for GSU softball
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The 2012 Southern Conference Regular Season Champion Georgia Southern Eagles picked up a number of honors on Monday afternoon with the announcement of the league's awards. Selected by a vote of the leagues' head coaches, Sarah Purvis headlined the award winners with the Pitcher of the Year Award. Purvis was joined on the All-SoCon First Team by senior Marie Fogle.
Senior Hanna Ennis earned second team All-SoCon honors while Brooke Red pitched her way to All-Freshman Team honors. Head Coach Annie Smith rounded out the award winners by being named SoCon Coach of the Year.
Purvis is the third Georgia Southern pitcher in the last four years to earn Pitcher of the Year honors. The sophomore hurler became Georgia Southern's first 20-game winner in program history with a pair of victories against Furman to clinch the regular season title. She fanned 221 batters to set a new school record, and enters postseason play ranked 10th for single-season strikeouts in SoCon history.
Fogle picked up her third career first team selection, joining Nina Iduate (2008, 2009, 2010) as the only three-time first team selection. Fogle led the Eagles with a .408 batting average this season with a .449 mark in league play. In conference games, Fogle slugged .797 and hit five of her nine home runs. The 2012 SoCon Preseason Player of the Year enters the league tournament poised to set the career slugging percentage record at Southern with a .561 career mark.
Baseball Eagles salvage win
In the third one-run game of the series, the Georgia
Southern Baseball team finally came out on top with a 3-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at J.I. Clements Stadium. In a tie ball game, the Eagles struck for the winning run in their final inning at the plate to avoid the series sweep.
Ennis backed up her Preseason All-SoCon award this year with second-team All-SoCon honors at second base. She hit .257 this year with 10 doubles while holding a .966 fielding percentage. Ennis has 36 career doubles, ranking her sixth all-time at Georgia Southern.
Red's breakout freshman year in the circle earned her All-Freshman honors. She enters the SoCon tournament with a 10-1 record and a 1.63 ERA. Red has fanned 58 batters and held opposing batters to a .197 average this season.
Smith becomes the third coach in Georgia Southern history to earn Coach of the Year honors. In her first season in Statesboro, Smith has led the Eagles to their best season in school history. The Eagles set new school records for overall wins (38) and conference wins (22) this season. Smith is also the fastest coach in school history to reach 25 wins.
