Alontae Taylor looks downfield during Monday’s scrimmage with Franklin County

3 big plays accounted for 3 Red Raider touchdowns as Coffee County closed out the spring football season with a 3 to 0 win over Franklin County on Monday in Winchester. The Red Raider defense was spectacular as Deaaron Rozier scampered 60 yards on a fumble recovery for a touchdown and Reese Pratt returned an interception 35 yards for a score. The Raider defense held the first string Rebel offense to 80 yards on 30 plays for a 2 .67 yards per play average. Additionally, the defense forced 6 fumbles and recovered 3 while intercepting 2 passes and had 7 negative yardage plays.
On offense, Alontae Taylor again showed his big play ability as he scampered 70 yards on a keeper for an apparent TD only to have it called back on a hold. Taylor also lined up outside and caught a 70 yard TD pass from Colton Prater for the 3rd Raider score.
Rozier finished the game with 69 yards on 7 carries. Talyor rushed 3 times for 9 yards and caught 1 pass for 70 yards and a TD. Tyrese McGee caught 3 passes for 53 yards to lead the receivers. At quarterback, Taylor was 2 for 4 passing for 48 yards while Prater was 3 for 5 for 105 yards, 1 touchdown and an interception.
After the scrimmage, Coach Sulkowski was pleased with his team’s effort after taking off for the previous 5 days. When asked about his impressions on the spring work, Sulkowski said that his team was “talented without a lot of depth.”
Coach Sulkowski on Deaaron Rozier’s performance

Coach Sulkowski on Alontae Taylor

Coach Sulkowski on Tyrese McGee

The 2016 10U Longshots. Bottom Row(left to right) Tyler Craig, Jayden Fellers, Gaige Turner, Cole Pippenger and Boo Greene. Top Row(left to right) Brayden Williams, Beau Murray, Nolan Jernigan, Jayron Morris, Kyler Terry [Photo Provided]

On Sunday, the Longshots defeated the North Georgia Bulldogs 2-0 in the opening round game. In the semifinals, they dropped the Carolina Reds 8-1 for a berth in the championship game.  In the title game, the Longshots were matched up against Minion Baseball from North Carolina.   The Longshots brought home the championship by a score of 5-3.

The Longshots are now 23-4 on the season.  In the 7 tournaments they have competed in, the Longshots have captured 4 championship trophies and 2 championship runner up trophies.

The Braves rediscovered the long ball Monday night, but some early small ball and Matt Joyce’s late homer led the Pirates to an 8-5 win at PNC Park.

Given a rare start with Starling Marte on the paternity list, Joyce took advantage of the opportunity. The outfielder punctuated Pittsburgh’s three-run first inning with an RBI single to right field off Braves starter Williams Perez. In the seventh inning, he tagged his fifth homer, a two-run shot, into the right-field seats to cap a three-hit day.
“It felt good off the bat. I got it up in the air to right,” Joyce said. “It’s exciting for me to get in there, get some at-bats, play a couple days in a row.”
Left-hander Jonathon Niese made his second straight quality start, limiting Atlanta to two runs on five hits over six innings. He served up his 11th home run, a two-run blast by Jeff Francoeur, but otherwise kept the Braves off the board. Niese pitched particularly well with runners on base, an area he addressed by throwing his last two between-starts bullpen sessions out of the stretch.
“It helps me stay back and stay on line and keep myself under control,” Niese said. “Normally when you throw bullpens, you throw the majority of them out of the windup. … I thought that kind of helped me out today.”
The Braves kept it close with their first multi-homer performance since Opening Day, as Francoeur hit his first of the year in the sixth and Kelly Johnson launched a two-run shot to center off Cory Luebke in the eighth. Atlanta began the night with nine homers, 20 fewer than any other team and fewer than 13 players.
“It’s good to get a home run and get a zero off there, but at the same time, we were down so much,” said Johnson, who also picked up his first homer. “We did fight back. We definitely could have kept it a closer game, and then to have been able to see what would have happened would have been nice.”
The Pirates hit only one ball out of the infield in the first inning, but they still managed to quickly take a three-run lead. John Jaso walked, then Gregory Polanco and David Freese reached on consecutive infield singles to Braves shortstop Erick Aybar. Jaso scored on a wild pitch, Polanco came home on Francisco Cervelli’s RBI groundout and Freese scored on Joyce’s line-drive single to right field.
“We had some well-placed balls today. Not all of them were hit extremely hard, but we found grass, we moved the ball around,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We weren’t trying to jump things, weren’t trying to pound the ball out of the ballpark. We were able to work a good young pitcher into some situations.”
After stranding a runner at third base during each of the first four innings, the Braves finally dented the scoreboard with Francoeur’s two-run shot in the sixth. It was Atlanta’s 10th home run (second with a runner on base) of the season and just the fourth hit by somebody other than Freddie Freeman. Johnson added a two-run shot in the eighth to give the Braves their first two-homer game since Freeman and Adonis Garcia homered within the first four innings of the Opening Day matchup against the Nationals’ Max Scherzer.
After being called up Monday afternoon, Alen Hanson made his Major League debut as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning. The Pirates’ No. 10 prospect struck out against Perez, going down on four pitches. Hanson’s stay might be short, likely ending when Marte returns, but he still beamed before the game about the chance to realize his lifelong dream. So did his teammate and close friend Polanco.
“I’m very happy for him to be here. We have so much fun together,” Polanco said. “I’m very proud of him. I told him keep working and you’ll be able to stay here for a long time.”
Aybar’s defensive struggles extended as his limited range prevented him from turning two infield singles into outs during that first inning. But at the same time, Perez’s command was nowhere near as sharp as it had been when he limited the Phillies to two hits over eight innings last week. The right-hander was charged with six earned runs and nine hits over six innings. He posted an 11.21 ERA in the first four starts he made after completing his only other eight-inning effort last year.
“I thought [Perez] pitched well,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He’s a contact guy. They made contact against him. I think at one point during the first inning, they had loaded the bases without a ball reaching the outfield. They were all ground balls just out of the reach of our infielders. But [Perez] gave us everything we had.”
It took the Braves 37 games to hit their 10th home run this season. They did not need more than 13 games to reach the double-digit mark during any of the previous six seasons: 2015 (10), ’14 (10), ’13 (five), ’12 (11), ’11 (13), ’10 (13).
The Pirates are 17-0 when leading after eight innings this year. Since the beginning of last season, the Bucs are 101-1 when leading after eight.
Aaron Blair will take the mound when the four-game series resumes on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. CT. Blair completed at least five innings in each of his first three starts, but he lasted just 3 2/3 innings against the Phillies last week.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that game beginning at 6 PM on the Braves Radio Network.

The Nashville Sounds took full advantage of a huge error in the sixth inning on their way to a 4-1 win over the Fresno Grizzlies in front of 4,971 fans Monday night at First Tennessee Park.

With two outs and the bases loaded in a 0-0 game in the bottom of the sixth, Fresno left fielder Jon Kemmer dropped a fly ball hit by Rangel Ravelo that would have ended the inning. Chad Pinder, Renato Nunez and Jake Smolinski raced around to score the first three runs of the game.

For good measure, catcher Bryan Anderson rifled a double down the left field line to tack on a run and make it 4-0.

The offense was more than enough for Zach Neal and the bullpen. In his first appearance back with Nashville since making his major league debut on May 11, Neal picked up right where he left off.

The right-hander retired the first 10 batters he faced. He worked six innings and allowed one run on three hits. The lone run he allowed was a solo homer hit by Matt Duffy to start the top of the seventh inning.

Over his last three starts, Neal is 3-0 and has allowed only two runs in 21 1/3 innings. He lowered his ERA to 2.53 and improved to 5-1 with the win.

Tucker Healy came on to relieve Neal after he allowed the homer to Duffy and a walk to Jon Singleton. Healy recorded back-to-back strikeouts and retired Jack Mayfield on a pop out to end the inning.

Battling the rain that started in the second inning, Healy retired the side in order in the eighth. J.B. Wendelken took over in the ninth and struck out all three batters he faced to slam the door.

With their third straight win, and fifth in their last six games at First Tennessee Park, the Sounds are 19-19 and even at .500 for the first time since May 2. They will go for their first series sweep in the finale.

The fourth and final game of the series is set for Tuesday night at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Dillon Overton (1-4, 4.89) starts for the Sounds against left-hander Tommy Shirley (3-2, 3.00) for the Grizzlies. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 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.