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Lady Bucks End Regular Season with Sweep
Freshman Kenzie Jo Anderson drove in the winning run with walk-off singles in both games Friday as the Motlow Lady Bucks closed the softball regular season by splitting a four-game series with nationally-ranked Walters State at Lady Bucks Field.
The Lady Bucks (26-22, 19-17) battled the visiting Lady Senators, who entered the series ranked No. 13 in the nation, down to the wire in all four games. Walters won Thursday’s opener 1-0 in nine innings and captured game two 2-1. Motlow won both games on Friday by 2-1 scores. Both teams now await seeding in the upcoming TCCAA/Region VII Tournament, which begins Sunday at Columbia State in Columbia.
Motlow’s pitching was nothing short of spectacular during the series, as both Cameron Pearson and Riley Long held the visitors at bay. Pearson (14-8) pitched 17 total innings and allowed just 12 hits and two earned runs. Long (9-12) went 14 innings and scattered 14 hits while allowing only two earned runs.
Anderson came up big when her team needed her the most, as she has multiple times this season.
In Friday’s first game with the score tied 1-1 and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Pearson slammed a triple down the right field line and Anderson followed with the first of her game winners. In game two, Lauren Hasty reached base with a single, advanced to second on Rachel Gamble’s sacrifice bunt and scored as Anderson sent the home crowd into a wild celebration.
First-year Lady Bucks’ head coach Janice Morey has done a masterful job of leading her team, which spent the fall season without a head coach and not being able to play a fall schedule. After opening the year dropping their first eight TCCAA games and sporting a 5-13 overall record on Apr. 12, the Lady Bucks have gone 21-9 since then, including 19-9 in the conference.
Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at <www.motlowsports.com> for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics at <Facebook/MotlowSports> and <Twitter@MotlowSports>.
Bucks to Open Baseball Tournament Sunday
The Motlow Bucks will face Volunteer State on Sunday at noon in the first game of the 2016 TCCAA/Region VII Baseball Tournament at Columbia State Community College in Columbia.
The Bucks (18-35, 5-22) completed their regular season with a 7-6 loss to Walters State Friday afternoon in the final game of a three-game series. Walters won Thursday’s opening game 16-4, then won the first game of Friday’s doubleheader 9-5.
The Bucks are the No. 10 seed in the tournament, while Volunteer State is the No. 7 seed. The winner of Sunday’s game will face No. 2 Dyersburg State at 10 a.m. Monday. Sunday’s other contest features Roane State against Southwest Tennessee at 3 p.m., with the winner facing No. 1 Walters State Monday at 4 p.m.
Motlow hosted Volunteer State for a three-game series the first weekend in April. The Pioneers won the first two games 14-3, 10-2, before the Bucks took the series finale 6-5.
Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at <www.motlowsports.com> for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics at <Facebook/MotlowSports> and <Twitter@MotlowSports>.
Woman’s Body Found in Grundy County
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has identified the body found Sunday in Grundy County as that of 26-year-old Samantha Kathleen Chandler of Gruetli-Laager. Investigators have ordered an autopsy on her body.
Chandler’s body was found in the Ross Creek area by people riding four-wheelers.
The Grundy County Sheriff’s Office says that the female body was discovered Sunday afternoon around 12:30 p.m.
We will continue to update this story as information becomes available.
Man Allegedly Pawns Stolen Items
Items were identified by the victim and allegedly pawned by Kevin Wright. Items were valued at $200.
A few days before Tullahoma Police learned that supposedly Wright was staying at a home after he left the victim she found several items of jewelry missing along with cash, items valued at $ 2,100.00. Some items were located at KK’s Pawn in Manchester where Wright allegedly had pawned them.
He was booked in at the Coffee County Jail on Friday April 29 under a bond of $12,500. His first court date is May 12, 2016.
Dangers of Detergent Pods: Study Reports Increase in Childhood Incidents

If ingested, laundry and dish detergent pods can cause injuries to the throat, lungs or skin. (S. Carson)
There has been a 17 percent increase in calls to poison control centers across the country in the last couple of years because of children eating laundry or dish-washing soap, according to new research. Donna Seger, medical director with the Tennessee Poison Center, says they may be convenient for parents, but the popular pods can wreak havoc in a child’s system. “They can aspirate them or the pod,” Seger says. “When it hits some kind of liquid, it kind of explodes, so they get granules into their lungs.” The latest two-year study says poison control centers got more than 22,000 calls because of children either eating or inhaling laundry pods, or accidentally squirting the contents into their eyes. There are reports of injuries to the lungs, burns to the skin and in the most severe cases children have required intubation or experienced cardiac arrest. Study co-author Henry Spiller with Nationwide Children’s Hospital says researchers looked at both laundry and dish-washing soaps, and by far the most dangerous were the laundry pods because they’re very colorful. “You know, bright little two and three year olds running around their house, and these are very pretty, and they put them in their mouths,” says Spiller. “And they kind of bite into it thinking it’s perhaps candy, and it squirts into the back of their throat, and they get sort of a blast of this.” Manufacturers have added warning labels to containers, and some have child-resistant caps, but Spiller urges them to consider changing the formulation or appearance of the laundry packets as well. He notes many are sold in plastic resealable bags that could resemble food pouches. Seger says it’s best to keep the pods out of sight and out of mind, for young children. “They definitely need to be kept out of reach,” Seger says. “If they’re going to have them in the house, they need to be where the children can’t get them, can’t climb to get ’em, can’t get anywhere close to get them. It’s a preventable injury.” Children younger than age three accounted for about three-quarters of the total poisoning cases in the study.
Cannon Co. Woman Charged with Aggravated Burglary
A Cannon County woman who was allegedly under the influence of drugs was arrested recently for aggravated burglary.
According to Cannon County Sheriff’s Department Reports, Investigators were called to a Fowler Road residence about a possible theft. The home owner stated that the female suspect Mandy Jernigan was crawling through an open window in the living room when she was caught going through a pair of pants and wallet which were sitting next to the chair the man was sleeping in.
Jernigan had been living in a camper next to the residence. Investigators went to the trailer and after a few minutes of trying to wake Jernigan, noticed she was under the influence of some type of drug. Jernigan stated she went over to the residence to talk but that the owners would not answer the door. That’s when she noticed a window was open and pulled the screen off the window and crawled inside.
Jernigan was arrested for aggravated burglary and will answer to the charges June 7th in Cannon County General Sessions Court. (WGNS Radio)
Great Smoky Mountains National Park provides over $870 (M) in Economic Impact
The National Park Service says Great Smoky Mountains National Park provided nearly $874 million in economic benefit to communities near the park last year and supported more than 13,000 jobs in the area.
A report from the National Park Service said more than 10.7 million visitors traveled to the park and spent time in local communities for lodging, meals and entertainment.
Nationwide, the report said there was $16.9 billion of spending by 307.2 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. The spending supported 295,000 jobs nationally, with a cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy of $32 billion.



