Nathaniel Tate

The Red Raider baseball team swept a pair of games from Lincoln County on Tuesday night at Powers Field in high school summer baseball action. Coffee County came out on top in the pair of 5 inning games. Using a mix of freshmen and upperclassmen, Coach David Martin saw his squad improve to 3 and 1 in the month of June.
In the first game, Coffee County banged out 10 hits as they drubbed the visiting Falcons 11 to 1. Freshman Hayden Skipper got the win as he allowed 1 earned run while striking out 2 and walking 5. Noah Anderson, Nathaniel Tate, Zach Morgan and Jacob Langham all had doubles for the Raiders. Tate and Langham also added singles. Grant Sadler, Garrett Booth, Morgan and Tate finished with 2 RBI each.
In the 2nd game, a single in the bottom of the 5th by Zach Morgan scored Hayden Hullett from 2nd base to give the Raiders a come from behind 5 to 4 walk-off win. Jacob Langham came on in relief in the 4th inning to get the win and was 2 for 2 at the plate with an RBI. Nathaniel Tate and Cade Giles each had a triple to lead the 10 hit attack for Coffee County. Giles finished the night going 2 for 2 with a pair of RBI.
The Raiders will next be in action on Thursday, June 16th in the Crethan Hansert Memorial Tournament at Powers Field. The Raiders will take on Franklin County at 7 PM. On Friday, the Raiders will host Warren County at 8 and conclude pool play with Grundy County at 4 PM on Saturday. The semifinals and finals will take place on Sunday, June 19th beginning at 1:30.

Derek Norris’ home run in the bottom of the ninth kept the Padres alive, and paved the way for a Wil Myers walk-off single to left, giving San Diego a 4-3 win and extending the Braves losing streak at Petco Park to 12 games.

“That’s a huge swing for us to tie that game up,” said Padres manager Andy Green about Norris’ seventh homer of the season. “So that’s a fun way to end a baseball game.”
Atlanta looked poised to snap its losing streak before closer Arodys Vizcaino gave up just his second home run of the season on a 97-mph fastball to the red-hot Norris, who now has 10 hits already this month. Vizcaino had been successful with six of his previous seven save opportunities this year and he had allowed just two homers over the previous 57 1/3 innings he’d worked since he returned from a drug suspension last year.
“I’m really not looking too much into it,” Vizcaino said. “My fastball wasn’t working the way I wanted and my secondary pitches weren’t either. It was just one of those bad days and it happens to everybody. I’m just going to take it and move on.”
Padres starter Colin Rea worked through seven full innings, helping provide some relief for a bullpen that has been taxed recently. The 25-year-old righty kept his team in the game by surrendering just three runs on six hits while striking out five.
“It’s really helpful for us,” Green said. “And he was strong all the way through seven today. I actually think he got better as the game wore on.”
Norris’ home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning sparked the Padres comeback victory. After Norris’ blast, Alexei Ramirez singled, stole second base and advanced to third before scoring on Myers’ walkoff single to left.
“Obviously I wasn’t trying to hit it out of the ballpark,” Norris said, “just trying to get a nice line drive, get on base and try and spark something. Fortunately I just got a pitch a little elevated and caught it pretty good.”
Nick Markakis delivered an RBI double in the first inning and added a sacrifice fly in a two-run fifth that gave the Braves a 3-2 lead. But Atlanta was inches away from enhancing that lead in the eighth inning when Freddie Freeman’s triple bounced off the top of the left-center field wall and came back into play. Through a boundary review that lasted 55 seconds, umpires determined that contact with a fan’s glove did not cause the ball to come back into play.
Before the game, Green talked about how he wanted Rea to be aggressive attacking the strike zone. He never said anything about being aggressive on the bases. That’s what happened in the second inning though, when third base coach Glenn Hoffman sent Rea home on a single to Atlanta left fielder Mallex Smith, who promptly threw him out with room to spare.
“I didn’t really know,” Rea said when asked if he thought he would beat the throw. “I’m not very fast. I knew the throw was probably going to beat me. But with two outs there, you gotta take a chance.”
Atlanta pitcher Aaron Blair was fortunate to surrender just one run while retiring just five of the 11 batters he faced in the first two innings. He exited in the fifth inning with bases loaded and immediately breathed a sigh of relief when Markakis showed great concentration as he caught Melvin Upton’s sacrifice fly while running into the right field wall. Former Padre Casey Kelly, Chris Withrow and Jim Johnson combined to work 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief before Vizcaino experienced one of his worst outings dating back to last season.
“The bullpen was just outstanding,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It would have been nice if we could have added some add-on runs and maybe we did. The guys did a great job. We did a lot of things really good and right, except win the game.”
Julio Teheran will take the mound when these two teams conclude this three-game series on Wednesday afternoon. Teheran has posted a 1.89 ERA over his past nine starts, but he has not won any of his past six road starts against National League West teams.

The Nashville Sounds rolled to another big win Tuesday afternoon by crushing three home runs in a 13-4 rout of the Omaha Storm Chasers at Werner Park.

Nashville took three of four against Omaha and have won six consecutive series dating back to May 14. During the six-series stretch, the Sounds have a record of 20-3. Overall, they’re 36-22, the best record in all of Triple-A baseball.

Four big innings and a solid performance from starter Chris Smith contributed to the series-clinching win. The Sounds plated five runs in the third, three runs in the sixth and eighth innings, and another two runs in the ninth.

Omaha held a brief 1-0 lead before the five-run outburst in the third. The big hit came from Andrew Lambo who roped a two-run triple down the right field line to give Nashville a 5-1 lead.

It remained 5-1 until the sixth when four hits brought in three more runs. Matt Olson and Matt McBride singled to put a pair of runners on for Jaycob Brugman who lined a double to right field to score both runners. Moments later, a base hit by Renato Nunez scored Brugman to extend the lead to 8-1.

The Storm Chasers got single tallies in the sixth and seventh against Smith. The right-hander allowed three runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings. The Sounds have now won five consecutive games in which he has started.

The offense kept on coming for Nashville. The eighth started with McBride being hit by a pitch from Matt Murray.

Three pitches later, Brugman launched a two-run homer to right field to make it a 10-3 game. Murray bounced back by retiring the next two batters, but couldn’t do the same against Ryon Healy. The first baseman drilled a 1-0 pitch from Murray over the left-center wall for a solo blast to build the lead to 11-3.

McBride capped his huge day at the plate with the Sounds’ third home run of the day, a two-run shot in the top of the ninth to close the scoring at 13-4. The catcher finished 4-for-4 with four runs scored.

Brugman’s two hits brought in four runs, and Healy finished 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored. Every Sound in the lineup had a hit or knocked in a run.

The team has an off day Wednesday before beginning a five-game, four-day series in Oklahoma City on Thursday. The two teams will play a doubleheader to start the series with game one set to begin at 4:35 p.m. Thursday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.