The Coffee County CHS and CCMS cross country teams hosted their annual middle school/high school meet on Tuesday as they welcomed in over 350 runners to their course on the campus of the Raider Academy. Also in attendance for the meet were the teams from Westwood Middle as all the local teams had great individual and team results.
The Red Raiders won their 3rd straight meet as James Lynn broke the tape at 18:01 to come in first place for the boys’ race. Andrew Godwin finished 5th, Bradley Kishpaugh was 7th, Andres Cavalie was 12th and Renato Ayala was 30th for the 6 scoring runners for Coffee County. Coffee County finished 1st out of 10 teams to remain perfect of the year.

For the Lady Raiders, Sarah Pearson finished in 3rd place and Emily St. John was 4th as the Lady Raiders finished in 2nd place barely edged out by Marshall County. Byanka Woods was 17th, Chiara Gisinti was 27th, Kelsey Selvage was 46th and Keishel Norton came in 50th as the top 6 for Coffee County.
For the Coffee Middle thinclads, Ethan Welch had an 8th place finish and Jacob Rutledge finished 9th for the Red Raiders. For the Lady Raiders, Shelby Watkins was the 44th place finisher just ahead of teammate Jasie Willis.
The Raider cross country teams travel to Normandy on Tuesday for a match at Arrowhead Ranch. Coffee County will host their second meet of the year on September 29th at the Raider Academy.

The Westwood Cross country teams continued their strong fall campaign as they competed against 8 other teams in the Coffee County meet on Tuesday. For the Rockets, Brady Nugent came in 10th place out of a field of 105 runners as Westwood’s top boys finisher in the boys’ division. Bodey Todd was 15th, Louie Frazier was 17th, Lukas Workman 27th, Luke Beachboard 28th and John Dobson was 32nd for the top 6 finishers for the Rockets.
Patricia Barrera was the top Lady Rocket runner as she captured a 6th place finish in the field of 60 girl racers. The top 6 finishers for Westwood were: Lizabeth Martinez in 16th, Kasen Holt 24th, Alaya Barnes 26th, Marisol Martinez 30th and Sunshine Mai finished in 31st place.
The Rocket cross country teams travel to Sewanee on Saturday for a meet at St. Andrew’s

Marcell Ozuna delivered the power, blasting a three-run homer and driving in four runs. But it was Jose Fernandez, who provided some spark and emotion, tossing seven innings and being at the center of a seventh-inning benches-clearing incident.

When tempers settled, the Marlins held off the Braves for a 7-5 win on Wednesday. In their final game ever at Turner Field, the Marlins captured two of three in the series, and moved four games behind the Mets for the National League’s second Wild Card.
“Obviously, it was a big game because every win is big,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said after his team got back to .500 (73-73). “We get the lead early and they get four on us and then Jose settles in. Ozuna’s home run is huge for us because from there we’re able to tack on. They came back and we still continue to get a run here and run there and make it easy on us.”
Ozuna’s three-run homer off Julio Teheran was the big blast in a four-run sixth. But the Braves built an early lead with four runs in the second off Fernandez. Nick Markakis connected on a two-run homer in the inning. In the sixth, Fernandez hit Markakis with a pitch, and emotions ran high in the seventh when Jose Ramirez brushed Fernandez back with a pitch. Both benches and bullpens cleared, but nothing further materialized.
“To me, Nick hits the ball out and then almost another one and then gets squared up,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I don’t think that was an accident. When we play, I don’t feel bad blood. It’s just two teams going at it. It was a pretty hard-fought game, really. Their team is trying to get into the playoffs, and for my take on it, we’re not trying to get in the playoffs but we’re trying to win every game we play.”
Mattingly said: “Just one of those games where guys are getting hit on both sides
Fernandez, who entered with a Major League-leading 12.8 strikeouts per nine innings, finished with a season-low three. The hard-throwing right-hander didn’t have a strikeout until he fanned Freddie Freeman to open the sixth. In his previous 27 starts, he didn’t have less than five.
“I told [Markakis], ‘Hey, man. I throw you one of the best breaking balls that I have, and you hit it out,'” Fernandez said. “‘I threw you another one and you hit the [stuffing] out of it.’ That second at-bat, I threw some good fastballs in, he was late on it. Jam. Jam. I was hoping, 2-0, throw a fastball in, he hits a popup to second base. Obviously, that was not the case. The ball slipped out of my hands, and I hit him.”
It wasn’t vintage Fernandez, but the 24-year-old Miami ace gave his team seven innings. Fernandez was able to settle in the third after Freeman singled to extend his hit streak to 20 games. Matt Kemp blistered a line drive that Dee Gordon snared at second, and he was able to double-up Freeman at first. Fernandez didn’t allow another hit.
“Just pitching,” Mattingly said. “They hit him pretty good the last time around here. I thought he tried to get in there a little bit more and change what he was doing some and keep them off balance a little bit.”
For the second straight start, Teheran faced little adversity through his first five innings. The right-hander surrendered an RBI single to Martin Prado in the first before he quickly shook off the early damage to retire 13 of the next 15 batters. But like in his start against the Mets on Friday, Teheran struggled in the sixth, giving up two hits and plunking a batter before being chased by Ozuna’s homer. After surrendering six runs in the sixth inning across his past two outings, Teheran’s sixth-inning ERA sits at 5.49.
“I was doing OK,” Teheran said. “I had the control the whole game until that very last inning. I was trying to keep the same pace, but I made one mistake in that inning with men on base and they got the lead. That’s where we lost the game right there, in that situation where I couldn’t make my pitch.”
In 2014, Ozuna belted 23 home runs. In the sixth, the Marlins’ right fielder connected on a three-run blast off Teheran, which capped a four-run inning, and gave Miami a 5-4 lead. The shot was Ozuna’s 23rd of the season, matching his personal season high.
“Since we’ve been able to get [Justin Bour] back and Marcell back healthy again it’s like the two-headed or three-headed monster becomes a lot more dangerous,” Mattingly said.
The Braves were on the brink of knocking Fernandez out of the game early after scratching across three runs without recording an out in the second inning. But with the bases loaded, Ender Inciarte grounded into a double play, the first of three induced by Fernandez in innings 2-4. One run scored on the play, but the inning came to an abrupt end in the ensuing at-bat, when Adonis Garcia popped out to short. Atlanta only put three more runners on base against Fernandez across the next five innings.
The Marlins took two of three in their final series at Turner Field. But in their history, Miami hasn’t enjoyed much success at the ballpark that opened in 1997, but is closing down at the end of the year. The Marlins finished 68-107 all-time at Turner Field.
Some tensions got away from both teams in the seventh after Ramirez buzzed Fernandez with a 94.6 mph fastball. In the sixth, with two outs and the count 2-0 on Markakis, Fernandez hit the Braves right fielder with a 95.3 mph fastball. After Fernandez was decked by the pitch in the seventh, the Marlins’ ace got up and walked towards Ramirez — who was immediately ejected — as benches and bullpens cleared. Both teams gathered near home plate, doing plenty of shouting, but nothing more. Fernandez was even seen talking with Markakis and catcher Tyler Flowers as order was restored.
On Monday, Ozuna was hit on the knee by a Mike Foltynewicz fastball. In the top of the sixth, Teheran hit Prado with a pitch. Earlier in the season, there were other examples of players on both teams hit by pitches. One notable one was on July 3 in the ninth at Fort Bragg military base when Ramos plunked Flowers.
Atlanta has an off-day on Thursday before opening a three-game home series against the Nationals at 6:35 p.m. CT on Friday. John Gant will take the mound for his third start since returning from a left oblique strain. The right-hander has allowed seven runs (four earned) over his past two outings while not making it past the fifth.