NOTEPAD: Mayhem finish season, Mercer tennis wins SoCon title, Macon soccer teams perform well

The Macon Mayhem played their final series of the season last weekend, falling 5-1 on Friday and 4-0 in Sunday’s season finale against the Huntsville Havoc.

Macon finished the year 20-31-3, good for 45 points and the ninth place spot in the final SPHL league standings. The Mayhem were one place short of the playoffs, though they stayed alive until the final stretch of the season.

Jake Goldowski and Dan Winslow tied the most points for the Mayhem with 34. Though newcomer Zach Nazzarett did have 36 points total on the season, only 13 of those came with Macon, the others notched during his time with the Peoria Rivermen this season.

Another key contributor was Yaroslav Yevdokimov, who signed on with the Mayhem in January. Yevdokimov scored 17 points in just 21 games, making an impact in multiple games in the second half of the season.

Tickets are on sale for the 2025-26 Macon Mayhem season.

Mercer men’s tennis gets share of conference title

Mercer defeated Wofford 7-0 to clinch a share of the Southern Conference title for the first time in the program’s 33-year history.

The victory was the Bears’ seventh win in a row, as Mercer remains undefeated in SoCon play at 6-0. The Bears won the No. 1, 2 and 3 matches with relative ease to get in great position for the win before the rest of the team rounded out a sweep.

Mercer will close out the regular season in Macon with a Saturday match against Samford at 11 a.m. The Bears can win the regular conference championship outright if they defeat the Bulldogs, who are in second place with a 5-1 conference mark.

ACE baseball loses first region game

The ACE Gryphons lost in blowout fashion to the Bleckley County Royals in a key region game Tuesday, as the Royals scored six runs in the first two innings to cruise to a 13-3 win.

Gavin Cole stole the show for Bleckley County, driving in four runs for the Royals on three hits. Walker Boatright also had three hits for Bleckley County at the top of the order. Austin Yourn and Jay Johnson also had three hits each.

The Royals tallied 16 hits and won by mercy rule after going up by 10 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

It was a surprising outcome, as the Gryphons had been atop the Region 2-A Division I standings all season. ACE only mustered three hits. One of those was a double by Aiden Sanderson to drive in two runs in the fourth, but by then it was already 8-2 in favor of Bleckley County.

Sanderson drove in one more run in the sixth for the Gryphons, their third and final score. ACE dropped to 14-1 in region play, as it was their first loss against a Region 2 opponent. Bleckley moved to 13-2.

The two teams meet again Thursday, this time in Macon, after The Melody goes to print. If Bleckley County defeats ACE a second time, they will hold the tiebreaker and go into a deadlock for first place with Washington County, which is also 14-2.

All four teams have already clinched a playoff spot regardless.

Soccer teams remain unbeaten in region play

The FPD girls soccer team continued their dominance Tuesday, defeating Lamar County 10-2 on the road.

The Vikings are now 10-0 on the season, the only undefeated team left in their region, GIAA District 6-4A/3A. FPD defeated Stratford earlier this year to give the Eagles their only loss. The Stratford girls are 8-1 on the year.

Stratford’s boys team has been solid as well, as it remained undefeated in the district with a 5-0 win against John Milledge on Tuesday to move to 6-0 in the region and 9-2 overall. It was a much-needed victory, as both of the Eagles’ two losses came in their last two games against Mary Persons and Westminster-Augusta.

Both ACE soccer teams remain on top of the public school regions.

The girls have a stranglehold on the region, especially after defeating East Laurens 2-1 in what was a defacto region title game earlier this month. 

East Laurens’ lone goal is still the only score the Gryphon girls have allowed in Region 2-A Division I games all season. The ACE girls are 12-2 overall and 7-0 in the region after defeating Central 7-0 on Tuesday.

The boys team is 7-0 in region play as well, with a 9-4 overall mark. The Gryphons defeated their closest competitor for the region, Dodge County, 1-0 earlier this year and have control of the region as a result. They also defeated Central 7-0.

Other Bibb County soccer programs have, for the most part, struggled. The Central girls have the most promising program, as the Chargers are 4-9 on the year with a 3-4 region record good for fifth place in Region 2. The Rutland girls also look solid, as they earned a playoff spot thanks to the power rankings.