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A 4 run outburst by Lincoln County dropped the Coffee County Red Raider baseball team in a 6 to 5 decision on Thursday.  The afternoon contest was the opening game of the 2016 Crethan Hansert Memorial Baseball Tournament

Coffee County jumped out to a 3 to 0 lead in the first inning thanks to 3 walks, a pair of Falcon errors and a 2 RBI single from Davis Green.  Nathaniel Tate also logged an RBI on a fielder’s choice.  Coffee County added a run in the 4^th inning on an RBI sacrifice fly from Jacob Duncan to score Grant Sadler.  Coffee County tried to rally from a 2 run deficit in the last inning as Jacob Langham scored on a double steal before Lincoln County shut down the rally.

Davis Green led the Raiders in hitting with a pair of singles in 2 at bats and a pair of RBI.  Langham had 2 walks, 3 stolen bases and 2 runs scored.  Grant Sadler had a pair of walks and scored once.

Coffee County is back in action on Friday when they take on Warren Co at 12:30.  On Saturday, Coffee County takes on Central Magnet at 11 AM and Grundy County at 6:30 PM.

Scott Hansert will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show as he will talk about the tournament.  The Coffee Coaches Show is heard each Saturday morning at 10 AM and is broadcast live from Al White Ford/Lincoln in Manchester.

The Red Raider Skills Camp is scheduled for next week at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.  The camp will be hosted by the Coffee County Red Raider basketball team. The Skills Camp is open to Boys and Girls grades 3rd-8th!! Brochures and registration links are below explaining all dates, times, and costs. Please fill out the online registration form and camp fees are due on the first day of camp!! If you have any questions please contact Head Coach Micah Williams at williamsm@k12coffee.net or Assistant Coach Benjamin Holl at hollb@k12coffee.net
The signup link for the Red Raider Skills Camp is:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kphKoH4ehsrhQIlnQh7GNs1DJleVaRIlSClO9cP7o1w/viewform
This year our new CCHS A/V Production class will also be filming all 4 days of camp, including instruction and all the fun. For $15.00 you and your player can take home a DVD for Instruction on demand, from former Professional Micah Williams and his staff at CCHS. You can relive the greatest moments of the Red Raider Skills Academy 2016. Information on DVD’s is also below. DVD Proceeds assist the A/V Production classes and students!

Freddie Freeman’s two-run home run in the third gave the Braves a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, as Atlanta received a solid start from Matt Wisler and defeated the Reds, 7-2, on Thursday to split the four-game series at Turner Field.

“It’s huge,” Freeman said. “Definitely when you’re at home you want to go out and win again, and Matt really picked us up today and gave us 6 2/3 of strong baseball.”
Cincinnati jumped out to a first-inning lead for the third time during the series when Brandon Phillips drove in Zack Cozart with an RBI single. The Reds stretched their lead to 2-0 in the third, as Adam Duvall hit his 19th home run of the season.
Chase d’Arnaud led off the bottom of the third with a double down the left-field line and later scored the Braves’ first run of the game on Mallex Smith’s RBI single. Two batters later, Freeman blasted his third homer of the series to hand his team a 3-2 lead.
“Whoever else is coming into town or wherever they’re going, they might be in trouble because he’s some kind of hot right now and we couldn’t figure him out,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Freeman. “We thought we had a bead on him, and he’s warm — he’s more than warm, he’s real hot.”
Atlanta chased Dan Straily during a three-run fifth inning and added one more run in the seventh, as Wisler shook off the seventh home run he’s surrendered over his past three starts and earned his first win at Turner Field since beating the Cardinals on Oct. 4, 2015.
Wisler settled in after giving up runs in the first and third innings en route to his first win after dropping his last four starts. The righty went 6 2/3 innings, yielding two runs on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts. More >
Straily had thrown 73 pitches through four innings, and his 28-pitch fifth brought his outing to an abrupt conclusion. The right-hander opened the frame with a pair of walks before surrendering a two-run double to Nick Markakis. He was pulled from the game after giving up a single to Adonis Garcia in the ensuing at-bat, ending his day after just 4 1/3 innings. Reds starting pitchers have lasted through the fifth inning just one time in the past five games.
“I’ve got some guys down there [in the bullpen] who are willing to take the ball when they’re out of gas and they’ll continue to come out and pitch, but that’s just not the way you compete,” Price said. “You don’t want to get into situations where you’re finishing a game with your backend bullpen pieces that are already tired, just simply as to finish a game.”
Freeman followed up Wednesday’s performance in which he hit for the cycle with three more hits. He singled in the first inning before hitting a two-run homer to right-center in the third. Freeman singled again in the seventh.
Wisler erased Joey Votto’s leadoff single in the third with a double play, but Duvall made the right-hander pay when he hit a home run in the next at-bat. With his 1-for-3 performance on Thursday, the left fielder is slugging .673 with six homers, 17 RBIs and 12 runs scored over his past 14 games.
Before this series, Freeman had recorded just seven extra-base hits and eight RBIs in his first 32 home games. The first baseman almost matched both of those marks in four games against the Reds, as he finished the series with six extra-base hits and six RBIs.
Rookie right-hander John Gant will take the mound as the Braves open a three-game series against the Mets at Citi Field on Friday. Gant went 4 1/3 innings on Sunday in his first career start, giving up three runs (two earned) on four hits and four walks with five strikeouts in Atlanta’s loss to the Cubs. The Mets will counter with Matt Harvey. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast at 6 PM as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

The Memphis Redbirds used a solid start from veteran right-hander Jerome Williams to top the Nashville Sounds, 5-2, in front of a sell-out crowd of 10,092 Thursday night at First Tennessee Park.

Memphis took the first two games of the series and the Thursday’s finale to take three of four from Nashville. The series loss is the first for the Sounds since May 2-5 against the Iowa Cubs.

The 34-year-old Williams went six innings and allowed just one run in the process. The lone run was a solo blast off the bat of Ryon Healy in the sixth inning.

The Redbirds gave Williams a lead before he had to throw a pitch. Kolten Wong was hit by the first pitch thrown by Nashville’s Chris Jensen to start the game. The right-hander was making his Sounds and Triple-A debut.

Wong moved to second on a groundout, swiped third base, and then scored on a fielder’s choice by Tommy Pham to make it 1-0 going into the bottom of the first.

Pham was back at it again in the third when he launched a two-run homer to deep left field to give Memphis a 3-0 advantage.

Another run batted in by Pham made it 4-0 in the fifth. Wong reached on a one-out bunt single and moved around to third on a pair of wild pitches before Pham’s base hit to right brought him in. Pham finished the night 2-for-4 with four RBI and Wong went 2-for-4 with three runs scored.

Healy got the Sounds on the board in the sixth with a towering homer to straightaway center field. It’s his fifth home run with Nashville and 13th overall this year.

After Memphis added another run in the eighth, Chad Pinder cut into the deficit with Nashville’s second homer of the night. He hit a solo blast off reliever Ryan Sheriff to make it a 5-2 game. It was Pinder’s eighth home run of the season and third in as many days.

That’s as close as they’d get as Miguel Socolovich worked a perfect ninth inning to close the win for the Redbirds.

Jensen was tagged with the loss in his debut and Williams earned the win to improve to 2-1.

The Sounds welcome the Round Rock Express to First Tennessee Park for a four-day, five-game series set to begin Friday night. Right-hander Chris Smith (4-5, 4.36) starts for the Sounds while the Express have not announced a starter. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.