Rarely has a matchup between Coffee County and Lincoln County on the softball diamond been boring and Monday night held true to form.  The Lady Raiders needed to get 2 outs in the top of the 7^th inning with the tying run at the plate to claim a hard fought 5 to 3 win.  The win gives Coffee County a regular season sweep over Lincoln County and keeps them tied atop the district standings with a record of 5 and 1 at the midway point.

Trailing 1 to 0 entering the bottom of the 4^th inning, the Lady Raiders exploded for 4 runs.  The big blast came on a bases loaded double by senior Ashlynn Morton to plate 3 Lady Raider runs. Haley Hinshaw drove in Morton with a single to give the Lady Raiders a 4 to 1 lead.  After a Lincoln County home run in the 6^th inning, Coffee County answered in the 6^th inning when Katie Rutledge led off with a double and scored on a Raven Rogers ground out.  Lincoln County notched a run in the 7^th on a Coffee County error, but Rutledge entering the game as a relief pitcher to quell the uprising.  Haley Richardson got the start and went 6 1/3 innings striking out 3 to get the win.

Rutledge finished the game with 3 hits including the double. Richardson, Hinshaw and Lauren Tomberlin each finished with 2 hits.  Ashlynn Morton was named the Crazy Daisies player of the game.   Coffee County will now enjoy a week off as they will be back in action on Monday night in Winchester as they take on Franklin County.  First pitch is set for 7 PM.

Download the broadcast at: http://www.thunder1320.com/downloads/

Reid Lawrence of CHS tennis

The Coffee County Central High School tennis teams hosted their first matches of the year on their new home courts at the Raider Academy.  After a wet spring and wind damage forced postponement of several matches, the Raider netters welcomed Shelbyville to their home court.  The Lady Raiders fell to the Eaglettes 5 to 2 while the Red Raiders won 5 to 2

For the Red Raiders, Reid Lawrence(by a score of 9 to 7), Shlip Patel(8 to 2) and Jonah Rollman(8 to 6) got wins in singles’ play.  Both Red Raider doubles teams won as the team of Grey Riddle and Reid Lawrence won 8 to 5 while the team of Joseph Sadler and Shlip Patel won 8 to 3.

The Lady Raiders got a singles win from Rachel Henley(8 to 4) and a doubles win from the team of Baylee Nester and Kayla Wright(7 to 2 in Tiebreaker)

The Raider tennis teams will not have to wait long for a rematch as they travel to Shelbyville on Tuesday.  That match will begin at 4 PM at H.V. Griffin Park.

Hayden Hullett of CCMS Baseball

For the first time in 4 years, the Coffee County Middle School and Westwood baseball teams met on the diamond at CCMS on Monday.   The two teams entered the 5^th inning in a 1 run game before Coffee County notched a single run in the 5^th.  The Red Raiders managed to push 6 runs across in the 6^th inning to take an 8 to 0 non-conference win.

Westwood was held to a pair of hits on the game as Blake Hale and Wyatt Nugent had singles for the Rockets.   Trenton Thompson got the start for the Rockets and was saddled with the tough luck loss.

Griffin Meeker was the Coffee County starter and got the win striking out 6.  Hayden Hullett had a pair of singles for Coffee County to lead the Raider hitting attack.

Westwood hits the diamond again on Wednesday when they travel to Huntland.  First pitch is set for 5 PM.  Coffee County is back in action on Thursday when they welcome Lincoln County to CCMS.  That game gets underway at 5 PM.

Kara Beth Patton of Westwood softball

The Westwood softball team welcomed Cannon County to Lady Rocket Field on Monday hoping to avenge one of their 2 losses on the year.  Cannon County proved to have the pitching to capture the season sweep as they got a 12 to 2 win over Westwood.

As in the first game, the Lady Lions’ pitchers kept the Westwood batters at bay limiting Westwood to 2 hits on the game.  Kara Beth Patton had both hits for Westwood as she stroked a pair of singles and scored one of Westwood’s runs.  Haidyn Campbell walked twice and got an RBI and Madison Wakefield scored the other run for Westwood.

The loss drops the Lady Rockets record to 6 and 3 overall.  Westwood remains a perfect 6 and 0 in conference play heading into a big conference game at Moore County on Tuesday.  First Pitch is set for 5:30 PM.

The Coffee County and Westwood Middle School golf teams welcomed Harris and Liberty to Willowbrook on Monday for a pair of matches.  The Raiders squared off against Harris and Westwood tangled with Liberty in the 2 person scramble format.

The Coffee County team fell 7 ½ to 4 ½ gaining 3 points by virtue of a forfeited match.  On the course, the Raider golfers tied Harris in each scramble with each team claiming 4 ½ flags.  The Raider teams of Logan Hale & Chase Hancock; Keegan Grubbs & Bennett Williams; and Caleb Jarrell and David O’Connor each split the 3 flags of their matches with Harris.

The Westwood golfers fell to Liberty 9 ½ to 2 ½ .  Liberty also got 3 points via a match forfeit.  Macy Lawrence and Cara Bell won their head to head match with Liberty to earn all the Westwood points.

The middle school teams return to action on Tuesday, weather permitting, as they travel to Fayetteville’s Pebble Creek course to take on the Fayetteville Tigers.  That match is set to tee off at 3:30 PM.

The Nashville Sounds dropped the season-opening series to the Round Rock Express after falling 5-4 Monday night in the Lone Star state.

In a back-and-forth game it was the Express who had the last laugh thanks to a bases loaded walk from Simon Castro to Preston Beck in the home half of the seventh inning.

Nashville plated the first runs of the game in the fourth inning when Renato Nunez belted a pitch from Eddie Gamboa over the fence in left center field. The lead was short-lived for the Sounds as the Express responded with three runs in the home half of the inning. After leaving runners stranded in each of the first three innings, the Express were able to break through in the fourth and did so in a big way with three runs in the inning.

Cesar Puello got things rolling for the Express in the frame with a one-out base hit and came around to score when Luis Marte grounded a ball back up the middle that hit off of Smith’s glove and caromed away from him. Doug Bernier followed that up with an RBI single of his own. Center fielder Jaff Decker attempted to throw out Marte at third base but the throw got away allowing Marte to cross home plate and give the Express a 3-2 lead

Will Middlebrooks continued to be a thorn in the side of the Sounds as he hit his third home run of the series in the fifth inning to extend Round Rock’s lead to 4-2. Chad Pinder, however, would cut the lead in half as he collected a two-out RBI single in the top half of the sixth inning. Pinder has now collected at least one base hit in each of the first five games.

In the seventh inning Ryan Lavarnway got things started for the Sounds with a seeing-eye single into right field. He then advanced to second base when Andrew Lambo grounded out the first. Speedy outfielder, Kenny Wilson, legged out an infield single to move Lavarnway within 90 feet of tying the ball game. With runners on the corners and just one out, Franklin Barreto lifted the ball into center field deep enough for Lavrnway to tag from third and knot the game up at four runs apiece.

The final twist in the opening series of the season came in the seventh inning when Simon Castro came on in relief of Aaron Kurcz who had given up a lead-off single to Beck and a base hit to Travis Snider. Castro was unable to keep Round Rock off the board as he walked Puello to load the bases and subsequently waslked Ronald Guzman to bring the winning run home.

Kurcz (1-1) took the loss while Wesley Wright (1-0) picked up his first win of the season.

The Sounds return to Music City for the home opener Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Daniel Gossett (0-0, 1.80) will get the ball for the Sounds and go up against Oklahoma City’s Trevor Oaks (0-0, 0.00). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.

The NHL has announced the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks Round One playoff series will commence on Thursday evening at United Center.

Chicago will host the first two contests of the best-of-seven series before the series shifts to Nashville for Games Three and Four at Bridgestone Arena. If necessary, Games Five and Seven will be at United Center and Game Six at Bridgestone Arena; details on those contests would be announced at a later date.

Below is the schedule for the Round One series (all times CT):

Game One: Thursday, April 13 at 7 p.m. – Predators at Blackhawks at United Center

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee/NBCSN; Radio: Thunder Radio

Game Two: Saturday, April 15 at 7 p.m. – Predators at Blackhawks at United Center

TV coverage: NBC; Radio: Thunder Radio

Game Three: Monday, April 17 at 8:30 p.m. – Blackhawks at Predators at Bridgestone Arena

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee/CNBC; Radio: Thunder Radio

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Game Four: Thursday, April 20 at TBD – Blackhawks at Predators at Bridgestone Arena

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee/TBD; Radio: Thunder Radio

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*Game Five: Saturday, April 22 at TBD – Predators at Blackhawks at United Center

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee; Radio: Thunder Radio

*Game Six: Monday, April 24 at TBD – Blackhawks at Predators at Bridgestone Arena

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee; Radio: Thunder Radio

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*Game Seven: Wednesday, April 26 at TBD – Predators at Blackhawks at United Center

TV coverage: Fox Sports Tennessee; Radio: Thunder Radio

*If necessary