Nashville Sounds pitcher Jharel Cotton

Nashville Sounds pitcher Jharel Cotton has been named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for his performance from August 8-14, the league announced this afternoon.

The right-hander made one start for the Sounds during the week and turned in a masterful performance. In an August 9 outing in Round Rock, Texas, Cotton narrowly missed a perfect game and settled for a one-hit, complete game shutout.

Cotton retired the first 26 batters he faced before allowing a two-out triple in the bottom of the ninth inning. He struck out the next batter to finish of the 12-strikeout performance in Nashville’s 3-0 win over the Express.

Had Cotton finished the perfect game, he would have been only the fourth pitcher to throw a nine-inning perfect game in PCL history dating back to 1903.

Two of the three perfect games in league history belong to Nashville Sounds’ pitchers. John Wasdin was the first to accomplish the feat when he retired all 27 batters in a start against the Albuquerque Isotopes at Greer Stadium on April 7, 2003.

Manny Parra is the latest to toss a perfect game. The left-hander made history in a June 25, 2007 start in Round Rock – also a 3-0 Sounds win over the Express.

Cotton became the second pitcher in the PCL to throw a nine-inning, one-hit shutout this season. He’s also the second pitcher in the league to record 12+ strikeouts in a game without issuing a walk.

The 24-year-old leads the PCL in strikeouts (136), WHIP (1.07) and batting average against (.209) and starts for the Sounds in the series finale against Reno tonight. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at First Tennessee Park.

The Sounds have been honored with weekly awards four times in 2016. Dillon Overton was PCL Pitcher of the Week (April 18-24) and Jaycob Brugman (June 6-12) and Bruce Maxwell (July 11-17) have garnered PCL Player of the Week honors.

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. Tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

Alexis Rayman(in pink) attacks the net against 2 Harris defenders on Saturday

A pair of shutouts by the CCMS varsity and junior varsity soccer teams highlighted a strong performance for the home teams in Saturday’s Kickin’ Cancer Play Day. The varsity team had a win and a scoreless draw on the day while the JV team won a pair of shutouts. The Lady Raiders strong play, coupled with a huge turnout, gave Coach Travis O’Kelley a lot to be pleased about with Saturday’s scrimmage event.
The varsity team opened the day against Rockvale with a draw in a match where they dominated the time of possession. The Lady Raiders managed 9 shots on the game but could not get a ball past the Rockvale keeper. Against Harris, the Lady Raiders managed a goal on 8 shots as Alexis Rayman drilled home a rebound resulting from a scrum in front of the net.
The JV team got a pair of 2 to 0 wins defeating DeKalb County 2 to 0 as Katie Cotton had a pair of goals and Alyssa Gipson added an assist. The Lady Raiders dominated play as they had 7 shots on goal and forced 4 corner kicks. In the second game, Rayman and Cotton scored the goals for Coffee County.
“From an attendance standpoint, this was definitely the biggest day in tournament history; due in no small part to the involvement of so many teams” said Coach O’Kelley. He went on to say, “As a result, I expect that we will be making a sizable donation to the Middle Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition this year. On behalf of the boosters, players, coaching staff, school and administration, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all those who took part in making this our most successful Kickin’ Cancer play day to date.”
The Lady Raiders will open the regular season on Tuesday when they travel to McMinnville to take on Warren County. The varsity match is set to begin a 5:30 PM. Thunder Radio will be on hand for the Lady Raiders home opener on August 25th when Harris visits the Lady Raiders’ home pitch. That game will be broadcast as part of the First National Bank Hometown Sports Series.

Brianna Jones hits a pitch from former Lady Raider coach, and current MTSU softball coach, Jeff Breeden in Saturday’s Alumni Game

Known for her dominant pitching, former Coffee County Lady Raider Brianna Jones wowed the crowd with a win in the home run derby at Saturday’s Lady Raider Alumni Game. With a small turnout of former players, former head coach Jeff Breeden agreed to throw batting practice for an impromptu home run hitting contest. Brianna Jones, now a pitcher at Southern Illinois University, barely edged out former Lady Raider Cheyenne Willis to win the prize.
Former Lady Raider, and event organizer, Ashley Harrell Jernigan said the event raised over $3,500 to benefit the Coffee County Central High School softball team. The majority of that money was earned from the silent auction. Additionally, $208 was donated to the Daryl Welch family from a live cake auction. Coach Steve Wilder says that he plans on making the event an annual tradition.

Anthony Rendon continued his hot hitting on Sunday with a home run and four RBIs to back seven strong innings from Tanner Roark in the Nationals’ 9-1 win over the Braves at Nationals Park.

With the victory, the Nationals still have a comfortable 8 1/2-game lead over the Marlins in the National League East. The Marlins edged the White Sox, 5-4, on Sunday.
To show how hot Rendon has been, since July 16, he is 27-for-84 (.318) with six homers and 21 RBIs. Rendon had a hand in Washington’s three-run first against right-hander Tyrell Jenkins. Rendon drove in one with a sacrifice fly, and added a three-run shot in a four-run fifth.
“Just finding holes. Balls are falling in. I feel like I’ve been squaring ball the entire year,” Rendon said.
Said Nationals manager Dusty Baker, “Anthony has been a good hitter all his life. So his timing is there. His hands are unbelieveable. He has some of the quickest hands, offensive and defensively. That’s what impressed me during Spring Training. He is the guy I told my son to watch. I told my son, ‘That’s your friend. Your hands. You watch Anthony Rendon, he uses his hands.'”
After the home run, Jenkins was done for the day. He lasted last 4 2/3 innings and allowed seven runs on six hits. His most glaring mistake was walking Roark to begin the fifth.
Roark left the mound to a standing ovation in earning his 13th win. Once he left, Oliver Perez and Matt Belisle blanked the Braves, who split a 10-game road trip, despite losing four of the final five games. Roark allowed one run, going at least seven innings for the 15th time in 24 starts this season.
Bryce Harper returned after missing five games with a stiff neck and had an RBI double in his first at-bat.
“You can’t go out and give free passes to these guys,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s a really good offensive club. You’ve got to make them earn everything they get. You can’t put extra guys on base or it will bite you and it did. You just have to stay on the attack and go after hitters. When you start putting them on, you’re just asking for trouble.”
Harper played his first game since Aug. 6 against the Giants and went 1-for-3 with an RBI, a walk and two runs scored. In his first at-bat, his RBI double into the left-field corner highlighted a three-run first inning.
“I felt good to get out there and help the team win. That’s your biggest thing,” Harper said. “I had a couple of good ABs and had some success and I felt pretty good.”
Jenkins surrendered a pair of extra-base hits and two runs before throwing his eighth pitch in a 25-pitch first inning in which he allowed three runs. He had retired nine straight before walking Roark to open the fifth. Harper drew another walk to load the base before Rendon followed Wilson Ramos’ sacrifice fly with a three-run homer. Jenkins had allowed just two earned runs while issuing 11 walks in 18 innings over his last three starts.
“I thought I pitched better in the first than what the score might have shown,” Jenkins said. “The long first inning led to some troubles down the road…Once [I walked Roark], it kind of went downhill from there. That can’t happen. It’s something I’ve got to work on.”
Roark allowed five hits in his 15th start of at least seven innings — this time in 96-degree heat. The Braves had runners in scoring position three times against Roark, but they scored their only run in the third when Ender Inciarte scored on a single by Erick Aybar.
“It was a very hot afternoon,” Baker said. “He fielded his position, which really helped out a lot. That was some performance in the heat out out there. He never complains about the heat. He doesn’t complain about anything. He goes out and pitches and the team responded behind him.”
Roark acknowledged it was out at Nationals Park, but as he put it, he has no control over mother nature.
“You still have to pitch. You still have to go out there and do your job. You have to block it out,” Roark said. “I was getting ahead of guys. I was pitching aggressive. The two seamer was working well and the curveball started kicking in.”
The Braves grounded into a double play twice within the first four innings and did not score a first-inning run after putting runners at the corners with one out. Inciarte sparked that early threat with a leadoff single and also quieted it when he made the mistake of attempting to score on Matt Kemp’s soft grounder to Roark.
“It was just one of those days,” Snitker said. “You can’t get behind and come back every day. In the first inning in a game like this, you kind of like to go out there and stay competitive in this game and make their guy work a little harder. It’s tough, especially against [Roark]. He’s been good against us.”
Inciarte has now reached base safely in a career-best 25 consecutive games. He has recorded at least one hit in 24 of these games and is hitting .354 (35-for-99) over that span.
The Braves have now lost 16 of the 17 games played at Nationals Park since the start of the 2015 season.
Atlanta will return home to begin a two-games series against Minnesota on Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Joel De La Cruz will start for the Braves, who swept a two-game series from the Twins at Target Field in late July.

Reno starter Matt Koch quieted the Nashville Sounds offense in the Aces’ 6-3 win in front of 7,153 fans Sunday night at First Tennessee Park.

The right-hander worked seven strong innings to give the Aces (64-58) their first win of the four-game series. He allowed three runs on nine hits, did not walk a batter, and struck out five.

Todd Glaesmann started the scoring in the top of the second when he belted a solo homer off Nashville’s Chris Jensen to give Reno a 1-0 lead.

Nashville (70-52) answered back with a solo blast of their own as Matt Olson drilled an opposite field solo smash for his 13th long ball of the season.

It looked like the Sounds were going to break it open against Koch in the third when they started the inning with three straight singles. Koch limited the damage to just one run when he got Olson to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play, and then retired Matt McBride on a groundout to end the inning with a 2-1 deficit.

Reno got to Jensen in the fourth when Peter O’Brien and Ed Lucas worked back-to-back walks to start the inning. Jack Reinheimer followed with an infield single to load the bases. Jensen struck out Glaesmann but a run scored on Kevin Medrano’s RBI groundout, and two came in when Dan Rohlfing plated a pair with a single up the middle.

The Aces extended their lead to 6-2 with a pair of runs in the sixth. Medrano walked and came around to score and Ildamaro Vargas reached on an error and later scored.

Nashville cut into the lead in the seventh when Bryan Anderson and Arismendy Alcantara came up with back-to-back doubles to cut the deficit to 6-3.

That’s as close as they’d get as Silvino Bracho tossed a zero in the eighth and Jimmy Sherfy retired the side in order in the ninth.

Renato Nunez extended his hitting streak to 12 games in the loss with a 2-for-4 night. Alcantara had a two-hit night as well for the Sounds.

Even with the loss, the Sounds have a double digit game lead in the American Southern Division with 22 to play.

The series concludes with the finale Monday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Jharel Cotton (10-5, 4.33) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Shelby Miller (3-1, 3.82) for the Aces. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.