Reynaldo Ramirez of Westwood football

A pair of big plays in the first quarter lifted the Westwood football team to a 12 to 0 win over their arch rival Liberty on Thursday night at Dyer-Bouldin Field. The Rockets scored on a 69 yard touchdown run from Trenton Thompson and a 39 yard touchdown run from Reynaldo Ramirez to salt away the win. Ramirez’ touchdown was set up by an interception from the Rocket’s Caiden Mullican.
Coach Chad Dyer used his running game to pound the football against Liberty as the Rockets racked up 220 total yards in the first half. The win improves Westwood’s record to 2 and 2 on the season. Westwood will travel to Unionville next Thursday for a 6:30 game with Community.

Amalia Prater prepares to serve match point for Coffee County Middle School on Thursday

Trailing 13 to 12 in the final set, the Coffee County Lady Raider volleyball team got a side out and a pair of excellent serves from Amalia Prater to capture a thrilling come from behind win over Harris on Thursday night. After dropping 3 heartbreaking matches to open the season, the Lady Raiders saw Harris roar back from a 12 to 9 deficit in the 3rd and final set that ends at 15. Not to be denied, the Lady Raiders scraped together the courage to capture their first win on the year in their home opener.
Harris captured the last 8 points of the 1st set to win that set 25 to 20. Coffee County returned the favor in the 2nd set capturing the last 6 points to knot the match at a set apiece with a 25 to 17 set win. Prater, who finished the night with 1 ace and 5 assists, calmly led the Lady Raiders from the sericve line to the 15 to 13 win in the 3rd set.
Maci Head led Coffee County in aces with 4 and added 3 kills. Kiya Ferrell had 4 kills, a dig and a block while Lauren Brandt added 3 assists and a dig. Coffee County is back home on Tuesday when they welcome South Lincoln to the CCMS gym. That match is set to get underway at 5 PM.

Rachel Henley of CHS Volleyball

Service and hitting errors were once again the story on Thursday for the Coffee County Central High School volleyball team as they lost their first district match of the year 3 sets to 1 to Lincoln County. The Lady Flacons grabbed the 1st two sets 25-22 and 25-21 before Coffee County rallied to capture set #3 25-16. Lincoln County put the Lady Raiders away 25 to 22 in the 4th set to capture the win.
Ten service errors and 26 hitting errors put Coffee County at a disadvantage to the talented Lincoln County squad. Coffee County did get 12 aces and 37 kills but it was not enough to claw out the win. Rachel Henley led the team in aces with 5 while adding 12 assists and 3 digs. Aerial Williams had 10 kills and 6 blocks up front. Sister Alliyah Williams added 7 blocks and 8 kills in the match. Bailey Morgan led the team in assists with 14 while adding 7 digs and 4 kills. Tyana Fenton collected 22 digs from her libero position.
Coffee County will be back at home on Tuesday night when they welcome Columbia to the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast as part of the 1st National Bank Hometown Sports Series. First serve is set for 6 PM, we begin our coverage with the pregame show at 5:50 here on Thunder Radio.

Jenna Garretson of CHS Soccer

After capturing a pair of non-district wins last week, the CHS soccer team made the trek up to Cookeville on Thursday night knowing they would have their hands full against the talented Lady Cavaliers.  Coffee County was outshot on the night 24 to 7 as Cookeville dropped the Lady Raiders 6 to 1.  Adjustments at the half proved to be effective for Coffee County but all the damage was done in the 1^st half as Cookeville built a 6 to 1 halftime lead.

Freshman Jenna Garretson once again had a great night for Coffee County as she drilled home a first half penalty kick to tally the Lady Raiders lone goal.  The kick was awarded after a Cookeville foul in the 18 yard box in the 28^th minute.  Garretson’s goal made it a 3 to 1 game, but 3 Cookeville goals in the final 12 minutes of the 1^st half proved to be the back breaker.  Senior Holli Smithson stopped 18 shots between the pipes as she was bombarded all night long.

Coffee County will travel to McMinnville on Tuesday night for a 7 PM match with Warren County.  Coffee County returns home on Thursday to take on Tullahoma in a 7 PM game at the Raider Soccer Field behind the Raider Academy.

Faith Willoughby races past a Huntland defender on Thursday night. (Photo by Rob Clutter)

The Westwood soccer team was blanked at Huntland on Thursday night 4 to 0. The Lady Hornets scored twice in each half to grab the conference win. Alana Coker had 8 stops in goal for the Lady Rockets. The loss drops Westwood to 1 and 1 on the year.
Westwood travels to Franklin on Tuesday to take on Franklin Middle School. Start time for that match has not been announced.

Matt Kemp might never again be the MVP-caliber player he was just a few years ago with the Dodgers, but as he continues to acquaint himself to a new environment, the veteran outfielder has allowed the Braves to remain confident they were wise to gamble on his remaining capabilities.

After the Braves stranded runners at a frustratingly alarming pace through the first seven innings at Chase Field on Tuesday night, Kemp delivered the decisive bases-clearing double with two outs in the eighth in a 7-4 win over the D-backs.
“Those are the situations you want to be in,” Kemp said. “I’d rather hit with runners on base than with no runners on base. To get in those situations, they don’t always work out the way you want, but that’s one of the reasons we play baseball, that challenge to get those big hits and put your team on top.”
On the way to winning for just the third time in their past 13 games, the Braves stranded eight runners through three innings and 10 through seven innings. Kemp had just four hits in his past 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position when he strolled to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth.
But none of this mattered when Kemp laced Jake Barrett’s 1-1 fastball down the right-field line. The two-run double capped a productive evening for the outfielder, who has batted .269/.344/.436 over 21 games with the Braves.
“The situation doesn’t seem to faze [Kemp],” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s been there and done that. He’s an RBI guy. That’s an understatement to say that [hit] was huge.”
Just 31 and in the midst of his seventh 20-homer season, Kemp finds himself constantly trying to quiet his doubters. The Padres’ intense desire to rid themselves of Kemp’s contract led them to send him to the Braves in exchange for Hector Olivera, who was released before playing a game in the organization.
The Braves did not want any part of Olivera after he returned from his domestic violence suspension and were willing to spend an additional $8.5 million over each of the next three years on Kemp, who has certainly proved he still has value as he has tallied 25 home runs and compiled a .776 OPS.
Kemp did not appreciate Atlanta general manager John Coppolella’s choice to publicly address concerns about the outfielder’s current weight earlier this week. But at the same time, he has repeatedly said he is looking forward to the chance to better himself while living out his childhood dream to play for the Braves.
“The guys here are good,” Kemp said. “They treat me well. We’re having as much fun here as we can in the situation we are in. We want to play good baseball and finish the season strong to go into next season. Where we are in the standings and the way we’ve been playing, we know we can play better.

The Memphis Redbirds scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the Nashville Sounds to a heart-breaking 7-6 loss Thursday night at AutoZone Park.

Armed with a 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the ninth, the Sounds were three outs away from clinching the American Southern Division title after Round Rock defeated New Orleans.

The celebration was put on hold when Memphis center fielder Harrison Bader drilled a game-tying solo home run off Sounds reliever Aaron Kurcz to level the score at 6-6.

Kurcz retired Matt Williams on a fly out before allowing a double to Breyvic Valera on a ball that glanced off the glove of right fielder Rangel Ravelo. Nick Martini drew a walk, but Kurcz came back to strike out Efren Navarro for the second out.

With two outs and runners at first and second, Jose Martinez hit a hard ground ball up the middle. Joey Wendle made a diving stop, popped up and fired to first. The throw was low and kicked past first baseman Matt Olson allowing Valera to score the winning run from second.

It was a back-and-forth game as the Redbirds jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings.

The Sounds battled back when Olson crushed a two-run homer in the third. In the sixth, Josh Rodriguez drew a bases loaded walk to even the game at 3-3. One batter later, Jaycob Brugman lifted a sacrifice fly deep enough to score Ravelo.

With a 4-3 lead, Olson’s big night continued with a double in the seventh. Matt Chapman followed with an opposite-field two-run blast to give the Sounds a 6-3 lead. Olson and Chapman combined for four extra-base hits, four RBI and four runs scored.

Memphis didn’t go away and scored a run in the seventh, a run in the eighth and the pair of runs in the ninth to win it.

Matt Williams drilled a solo homer off Angel Castro in the seventh, and Navarro plated a run with a base hit up the middle in the eighth.

The Sounds can clinch the American Southern Division with a win in Friday night’s game or a New Orleans loss to Round Rock.

Game three of the five-game series is scheduled for Friday night at AutoZone Park. Right-hander Jharel Cotton (10-6, 4.61) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Mike Mayers (4-6, 3.20) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for the 2016 Pacific Coast League playoff dates at First Tennessee Park are now available for purchase at the Nashville Sounds box office and online at www.nashvillesounds.com. The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate.