Mercer repeats Southern Conference academic honor

Mercer received the Barrett-Bonner Award for the second straight year as the Southern Conference wrapped up its spring meetings Friday.

The award is given to the Southern Conference school that places the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the conference’s academic honor roll. Mercer is the second school (along with former conference member Davidson) to win the award in multiple years.

Academic All-Americans

Mercer seniors Charlie Madden and Hunter Bening and Georgia State junior Justin Jones were named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America baseball second team this week.

Madden, a catcher from Dunwoody, graduated with a degree in accounting earlier this month. He started all 56 games for the Bears and finished the season with 17 home runs and 56 RBI. Bening, a first baseman from Fayetteville, graduated earlier this month with a degree in finance. He had 12 home runs and 39 RBI.

Jones is a former standout at Houston County, and he was named to the third team last year. Jones has a 4.08 GPA in health and physical education, and he is a three-year starter at shortstop with a career batting average of .288 with 77 RBI and 98 runs scored.

All-Tournament team

Georgia College freshman Cal Gentry, a former Perry standout, was named to the NCAA Divison II Baseball Southeast Regional all-tournament team.

Perry, a third baseman, went 4-for-8 with three runs scored in two games.

Football replay

At its spring meetings, the Southern Conference agreed to adopt instant replay in football with programs able to opt into the program beginning this season. All nine conference programs must have replay capabilities by the 2019 season.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Mercer repeats Southern Conference academic honor."