Briggs Haithcock of CHS soccer

The Coffee County CHS soccer team hit the road on Tuesday for a crucial district match against Columbia.  Battling a talented Lions team, Coffee County was looking to notch their 4th district win in a row.  An early goal in the 2^nd half proved to be enough as Coffee County prevailed in a 1 nil nail biter.

After the 2 teams battled to a scoreless tie in the 1^st half, Briggs Haithcock got the Raiders on the board in the 43^rd minute with an unassisted goal to give Coffee County a 1 to 0 lead.  The Red Raider defense made that goal stand up as Coffee County improved to 4 and 0 on the year in district play.  John Parigger got the win in the pipes as his defense kept the Columbia offensive chances to a minimum.  The Raiders did have to defend several corner kicks, but the defense was up to the challenge.

The Raiders return home on Friday to tangle with Tullahoma for the Coffee Cup Trophy.  That rivalry match gets underway at 7:45 PM at Raider Soccer Field.

It was a new setting but a familiar result for Max Scherzer and the Nationals, who used a two-run fifth inning to mar Mike Foltynewicz’s strong start and claim a 3-1 win over the streaking Braves on Tuesday night at SunTrust Park.

Scherzer extended his early-season success as he recorded seven strikeouts and allowed just two hits over seven scoreless innings. His effort helped the Nationals improve to 16-4 since the start of 2016 against the Braves, who had won five straight games, including each of the previous four played within their new ballpark.
“Against a guy like [Scherzer], you hope you can run his pitch count up and get him out of the game and try the bullpen because he’s really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s a tough matchup, but we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance at the end.”
The Braves made things interesting in the ninth as Nationals closer Blake Treinen allowed two hits and issued two walks, including one to Kurt Suzuki, before exiting with one out. Shawn Kelley ended the drama in a unique manner when he induced Emilio Bonifacio’s weak flyout to right and then twice completed a strikeout of Chase d’Arnaud.
As the ground crew brought the tractors around the warning track and the visitors were shaking hands, home-plate umpire CB Bucknor ruled d’Arnaud foul-tipped what had appeared to be the last pitch of the game.
“I was celebrating and happy and high-fiving everybody,” Kelley said. “And then when I saw the umps talking I said, ‘OK, I think this is going to go bad. We’re probably going to have to throw another pitch.’ So I kind of stepped back to the back of the mound for a minute while everybody was kind of getting back into position.”
After d’Arnaud got a second life on a pitch he said he didn’t feel he tipped, Kelley threw him the exact same pitch, a slider that d’Arnaud swung at and missed for what truly proved to be the game’s final pitch. The Nationals escaped with a victory, but they were not happy with the way the final out went down, especially left fielder Jayson Werth who was restrained by his teammates to avoid a confrontation with Buckner.
“What happens if that guy gets a hit and ties it up, and then we play all night?” Werth said. “That affects the rest of the season. It just blows my mind, it really does. I can’t really say what I want to say.”
Wilmer Difo and Adam Eaton recorded RBI singles during the decisive two-run fifth inning against Foltynewicz, who gave up just the two runs on five hits over seven frames. The Braves’ right-hander retired each of the final seven batters faced, but he didn’t gain any offensive support as Scherzer permitted just two baserunners to advance past first base.
Foltynewicz began the fifth inning with a first-pitch changeup that Matt Wieters drilled into the right-field corner for a double. Difo followed with an RBI single and scored when Eaton hit a changeup on the outside corner to center field to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead. The flustered Braves starter walked the next two batters faced, but he escaped without incurring further damage when Ender Inciarte caught Daniel Murphy’s long drive in front of the right-center-field wall. More >
After Nick Markakis followed Freddie Freeman’s leadoff walk with a bloop single in the fourth inning, Brandon Phillips hit into a fielder’s choice and Adonis Garcia grounded into his team-high fourth double play. The only other baserunner to reach second base against Scherzer was Jace Peterson, who walked to begin the third before being stranded when Dansby Swanson struck out for the second time on the night.
“We had one opportunity where we could have gotten something against him, and he shut us down and then he got even more fired up and kept going,” Freeman said. “When he’s out there throwing [114] pitches and he’s still throwing 95 [mph], you know it’s going to be a tough game.”
After recording four extra-base hits, including a pair of homers on Monday night, Freeman opened this series by going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks. The Braves’ first baseman has reached safely in each of his past 10 plate appearances dating back to Sunday and is hitting .577 (15-for-26) over his past eight games.
Julio Teheran will take the mound when Atlanta and Washington resume the three-game series on Wednesday night at 6:35 pm CDT.  Teheran has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of his seven career home starts against the Nationals.

The Nashville Sounds used a balanced offensive attack and a solid performance from starter Zach Neal on the way to a series-opening 5-3 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers Tuesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
Nashville (4-8) busted out of an offensive funk and put up nine hits and drew four walks to give Neal some overdue run support. The right-hander responded with 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball to pick up his first win of the season. Neal limited Oklahoma City (7-6) to six hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out five.
After Neal and Oklahoma City starter Justin Masterson exchanged zeros in the first inning, the Sounds got to Masterson in the second.
Chris Parmelee drew a walk and Renato Nuñez singled to put a pair of runners on for Matt Olson who knocked in the first run of the game with a sharp single to right field.
Olson scored a run of his own when Masterson uncorked a wild pitch, and Franklin Barreto added a sacrifice fly to give the Sounds a 3-0 cushion.
They added to the lead in the fourth with timely two-out hitting. Melvin Mercedes fired up the rally with a two-out double to right-center. Barreto reached on an error, Andrew Lambo walked, and Mark Canha made it hurt with a two-run single to left field to make it a 5-0 game.
The run support was a welcome site for Neal and the pitching staff. Over the recent six-game homestand, Nashville scored a total of eight runs.
Neal breezed through the first three innings, racking up three strikeouts in the process. O’Koyea Dickson broke up the shutout with an RBI triple in the fourth, and Alex Verdugo followed with a sacrifice fly to pull the Dodgers within 5-2.
The bullpen did the trick the rest of the way as Tucker Healy, Josh Smith, and Bobby Wahl slammed the door. Healy inherited a runner in the sixth and got Brett Eibner on a bounce out to end the frame. He then struck out a pair in a scoreless seventh.
Smith followed suit with a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless eighth before handing off to Wahl. The hard-throwing closer allowed a one-out solo homer to Bobby Wilson but earned the save.
Nuñez and Canha had multi-hit games while every Sounds player in the lineup reached base at least once.
Game two of the four-game series is scheduled for Wednesday night. Right-hander Daniel Gossett (0-1, 4.00) starts for Nashville against right-hander Jair Jurrjens (1-0, 1.50) for Oklahoma City. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.