Ashley Gilliam with her School Days plaque. (Photo provided by Marshall Gilliam)

Entering the final hole of match play, Coffee County rising sophomore Ashley Gilliam got an eagle on the 18th hole to win the Tennessean/Metro Parks School Days Golf Tournament on Thursday. The win by Gilliam, a Mississippi State commitment, came after Gilliam erased a 2 hole deficit on the front nine in the 92nd annual tournament. The School Days is the state’s longest continuous golf tournament and the most prestigious junior amateur tournament in Tennessee.
Gilliam shot a 6 under par 66 in Tuesday’s qualifying round to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals and guarantee herself a medal. In Thursday’s match play quarterfinal, Ashley won 7 and 6 in the morning match before an 8 and 6 win in the semifinal match. Both matches were ended after 12 holes.
Gilliam used a pair of birdies on holes 8 and 9 to draw even against Angelina Chan in the finals. Chan regained a 1 stroke lead through 15 holes before Gilliam tied the match again with a par putt on 16. The pair remained tied heading to 18 where Gilliam drove the par 5 in 2 to give her an eagle putt for the championship.

CHS rising senior Garrett Eldridge (Photo provided by Ben Holl)

The Coffee County Central High School Red Raider basketball team spilt a pair of games on Friday to conclude play in the Ravenwood team camp. In the first game of the day, the Raiders dropped a decision to Antioch. Garrett Eldridge led Coffee County in scoring with 15 points and 5 rebounds. Tyreese McGee had 8 points and 4 rebounds. In the nightcap, the Raiders got a 5 point win over LEAD Academy. Eldridge, Grant Sadler and Garrett Booth had great games in the win.
The Raiders will travel to MTSU for a team camp this week. The Raiders first game will be at 1 PM on Monday as they will take on Huntland in the Alumni Gym. The JV team will take on South Doyle at 1 pm at the Recreation Center. The varsity will also have games at 4 PM against St. Andrew’s and at 7 PM at Tallulah Falls. The JV will take on Austin at 3 PM and Sylvania at 8 PM. The Raiders and JV Raiders will both have games on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Jon Lester stymied the Braves and drove in a run, Anthony Rizzo collected three RBIs and Javier Baez belted a three-run homer to lead the Cubs to a sloppy, 13-2 victory on Sunday in Chicago’s final game at Turner Field.

The Cubs are 43-18, 25 games over .500 before they have lost 25 games. This is their best 61-game start since the 1907 Cubs began 47-14.
“I have goals — that was 25 over today,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “If I have any short-term goals, it’s to increase increments of five, and that’s what I focus on more than anything.”
Lester has given up two earned runs over 30 1/3 innings in his last four starts, and he lowered his ERA for the season to 1.89. The lefty shrugged off four errors in the game, and the Cubs have won 10 of his 13 starts this year.
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“You can’t really worry about it — I know guys are not trying to make errors,” Lester said. “My job is to pick them up. They pick me up more times than not with diving plays and unreal stuff they do out there for all of us.”
Rizzo moved past teammate Kris Bryant for second in the National League in RBIs (47) after hitting a one-out RBI double in the first, a one-out RBI single in the seventh and another one-out RBI single in the eighth. Baez’s home run highlighted a six-run eighth.
“[Bryant] sets the pace, then I set the pace,” Rizzo said of the RBI race. “Hopefully, we keep staying with each other all the way.”
Braves rookie John Gant, making his first big league start, took the loss, serving up three runs (two earned) over 4 1/3 innings. Atlanta dropped to 7-25 at Turner Field.
“There’s a reason they’ve won 43 games at this point,” Braves left fielder Jeff Francoeur said. “They’re a great team. We got Friday night’s game, and we knew we were going to have our hands full yesterday and today. We were in this game, and then it just kind of got out of hand.
A pair of one-out walks plagued Gant in the first when he surrendered an RBI double to Rizzo for the first run of the game. But with runners on second and third, the right-hander struck out back-to-back hitters to limit the damage. Gant held his own against the Cubs’ potent lineup over the next two innings, allowing only one hit, before Chicago struck for two runs in the fourth.
“He kept the game manageable, which is the biggest thing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He didn’t let it get out [of hand]. It was still manageable, and we had enough innings to come back. He did a good job, battled through a lot and did a good job of keeping the game there against one of the best teams in baseball.”
The Cubs had a runner at first with one out in the fourth when Baez hit a grounder to Adonis Garcia at third. Baez was originally called out, but after a review, the call was overturned. David Ross then blooped a single to right and Chris Coghlan scored as Nick Markakis’ relay sailed for an error. Baez scored on Lester’s squeeze, which first baseman Freddie Freeman fielded, but he opted to throw to Chase d’Arnaud covering at first. It was Lester’s second RBI of the season.
The Braves tied the game at 1 in the first after d’Arnaud scored on a double steal and a throwing error by Ross. Freeman, who advanced to third on the play, represented the go-ahead run, but he was stranded after Francoeur struck out and Markakis grounded out to second. Atlanta ultimately finished 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Over their past 23 games, the Braves are hitting .168 (32-for-190) in such situations.
This wasn’t the cleanest series defensively. On Saturday, the Cubs were charged with three errors, and on Sunday, they committed four more. Garcia reached on second baseman Ben Zobrist’s first error of the season, a wild throw, which catcher Ross recovered but then threw into center field for another error in the second. Ross also made a throwing error in the first. Garcia did reach third, but he was later caught in a 5-2-6-1 rundown that ended with Lester applying the tag and then tumbling onto the grass. Dexter Fowler was charged with another error in the fourth.
“We were uncharacteristic today,” Maddon said. “We made some mistakes, no question. But at no time did I feel it got to us or dragged us down. We were ready to come back the entire game. A big part of it was because Jon was so good.”
In the fourth, the Cubs had a runner at first with one out when Baez hit a grounder to third baseman Garcia. Baez was called out at first, but after a review, the call was overturned and Baez was credited with an infield hit.
Aaron Blair will take the mound for Atlanta when it opens a four-game home series against the Reds on Monday. The right-hander is 0-3 with a 6.08 ERA in five starts at Turner Field and has made it through the fifth inning just once in his past five outings. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m. CT and Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast beginning at 6 PM as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

The Nashville Sounds rallied for three runs in the ninth to win their seventh consecutive series with a 7-4 win against the Oklahoma City Dodgers Sunday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Colin Walsh walked to lead off the ninth for the Sounds and was followed by a double by Joey Wendle. After a Bruce Maxwell fly out, Jaycob Brugman came to bat with one out in the inning and the go ahead run just 90 feet away.

Brugman then showed his heroics once again as he delivered a one-out two-run single to left field scoring Walsh and Wendle to give the Sounds a 6-4 lead. Brugman then advanced to third on a fielding error by Dodgers left fielder James Ramsey. The Sounds added another run as the newest Nashville Sound Arismendy Alcantara delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to give the Sounds a 7-4 win.

Brugman and Alcantara reached on back-to-back walks to begin the game for the Sounds in the top of the first. Two baters later Ryon Healy launched a two-out three-run home run to left center field to give the Sounds an early 3-0 lead after one.

The Dodgers returned the favor with a three-run home run in the third to take a 4-3. With the bases loaded, a wild pitch allowed James Ramsey to score from third to make it 3-1 Sounds. Rob Segedin then launched a three-run home run to left to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead after three.

Sounds starter Chris Smith recollected himself and retired nine out of his next 10 batters to keep the Sounds within a run. Smith went six innings allowing four runs on three hits. Before giving way to Aaron Kurcz out of the bullpen, Smith struck out his ninth and final batter in Corey Brown to end the sixth.

The Sounds tied the game in the top of the eighth on a bases loaded sacrifice fly to right by Ryon Healy scoring Brugman from third. The sacrifice fly gave Healy his fourth RBI of the night to tie the game at 4-4 after eight.

Then magic struck in the top of the ninth as the Sounds rallied for three runs to take the lead 7-4.

Sounds Manager Steve Scarsone then called on Nashville native Andrew Triggs in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the Sounds win. After hitting Segedin to lead off the inning, Triggs retired the next three batters including striking out the final two batters of the game to record his second save for the Sounds. Tucker Healy who pitched an inning and struck out two got his second win of the season.

The Sounds know return to First Tennessee Park Monday night for a nine-game eight-day homestand with the first four games coming against their in-state rival Memphis Redbirds. The Sounds will send right-hander Jesse Hahn (1-1, 1.93) and the Redbirds will counter with right-hander Alex Reyes (1-0, 3.78). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.