NOTEPAD: Tattnall hires legendary coach, FPD wins tennis trophies

The Tattnall Trojans hired former Stratford and FPD coach Mark Farriba to join football coach Barney Hester as the team’s defensive coordinator, the school announced on social media last week.

Farriba accrued a 216-134-3 record across 30 seasons, according to Georgia High School Football Historians Association. He won a state championship with FPD in 1985 and another with Stratford in 2004, along with six region championships. He also spent time coaching at Prince Avenue Christian.

Farriba’s move to Tattnall comes as a shock, as he and Hester were once rivals during Hester’s first, longer stint as a legendary coach with the Trojans. The hire brings two highly-touted Macon coaches together on one staff. Farriba had previously been on the coaching staff at ACE with Keith Hatcher — formerly the coach at Mount de Sales — where the Gryphons made the playoffs regularly.

FPD gets strong showing at tennis championships

The high school tennis and golf tournaments are starting up, with both GHSA and GIAA schools in the mix.

The GIAA will host its golf championships on Monday, April 27. The boys will play at the Brickyard in Macon, while the girls will play in Hawkinsville at Southern Hills.

The GIAA hosted its individual tennis tournaments this week, with champions crowned Tuesday afternoon. 

FPD had a strong showing at the tournaments. Katelynn Jackson won the GIAA Class 4A girls individual championship, while Noah Perry and Ethan Lashley won the Class 4A boys doubles championship. The GIAA team tournaments begin April 28.

The GHSA team tournaments began this week as well. The ACE boys have the No. 3 seed in the Class A-Division I tournament, while the ACE girls are No. 2 in their bracket. The girls defeated No. 31 Pepperell to advance to the second round.

Soccer, baseball playoffs begin for GHSA schools

Multiple Macon schools made the GHSA playoffs this week as the state tournaments for soccer and baseball begin.

The girls soccer tournament began first on Tuesday with two Macon teams in the fray.

The ACE Gryphons got the No. 2 seed in Class A-Division I and got a mercy-rule win, defeating Gordon Central 10-0. Central was the No. 18 seed and fell to No. 15 Pepperell on the road 5-0 Tuesday evening.

Three boys teams made the state tournament and played Wednesday night, after The Melody went to print. The ACE boys got the No. 2 seed in Class A-Division I, just like the girls team, and defeated No. 31 Worth County. The Central boys were the No. 28 seed and lost 6-0 to Thomasville. In Class 3A, Howard was the No. 30 seed and lost 3-0 to No. 3 West Laurens.

ACE was the only GHSA team from Macon to make the baseball tournament. They earned the No. 9 seed and will begin their series against No. 24 Haralson County on Friday.

Macon to host college baseball tournament

The SIAC Conference will play its conference baseball tournament in Macon next week at historic Luther Williams Field near downtown, the conference announced last week.

The tournament begins Thursday, April 30 and runs through the following Sunday, when the championship game will be played. Teams in the conference include Albany State, Savannah State, Morehouse and more. Albany State should be one of the top contenders in the tournament, as they sport a 21-6 conference record.

The SIAC will host other events throughout the weekend. The Friday games are accompanied by Education and Youth Day, while Saturday is College Day and Greek Night at the stadium. There will be a free youth baseball and softball clinic Sunday before championship games put on by Minority Prospects.

All admission is free.

Mercer baseball gets much-needed sweep

The Bears got back on track last week with a sweep of Towson, then followed up with a dominant 14-4 win over Alabama State in seven innings Tuesday to move to 29-12 on the season.

The victories came after Mercer went on a bit of a skid, getting swept by Western Carolina on the road before losing to Kennesaw State for a four-game losing streak.

The Bears dominated the first game against Towson 9-1, then got an electric walk-off home run from Chris Katz on Saturday to get a 6-4 win in 10 innings. It was the second walk-off win for Mercer this year. An 8-6 victory rounded out the sweep Sunday.

The Bears stayed hot Tuesday and scored six runs in the first inning to defeat Alabama State. Shortstop Titan Kamaka had two hits, including a grand slam, and drove in five runs. Braydon Kersey had two hits, a walk and an RBI.

Mercer will need all the momentum it can muster headed into a home series this weekend against Wofford, the top team in the Southern Conference. The Terriers are 8-1 in conference play and 30-11 overall.