CHS Class of 2016 baseball players(left to right) – Bradley King, Gavin Husted, Kohl Young, Wyatt Day, Alan Rob, Zach Duncan and Zach Wise. Not pictured – Deandre Wakefield

A dramatic 2 out walk off single from Davis Green lifted the Red Raider baseball team to a 5 to 4 defeat of Central Magnet on Thursday night at Powers Field. Green’s single capped the second comeback of the game for Coffee County as they scratched out the non-district win on Senior Night.
Trailing by 1 run entering the 6th inning, Noah Anderson smacked his first home run of the year to tie the game entering the 7th. In the 7th, Nathaniel Tate reached base on a fielder’s choice and moved to 3rd on Jacob Langham’s single before being driven in by Green with the winning run.
Tate, who came on as a relief pitcher in the 7th inning picked up the win. Anderson finished the night going 2 for 3 while senior Alan Rob was also 2 for 3 with a pair of singles and 2 RBI. Zach Wise added a double for the Red Raiders.
Coffee County will be off until next week’s District 8AAA baseball tournament. The Raiders match-up and game time will be announced later and Thunder Radio will keep you up to date on the Red Raider’s schedule. Coach David Martin will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show as he will talk about the upcoming post season. The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast live every Saturday morning from 10 to 11 at Al White Ford/Lincoln in Manchester.

Tori Bell (Photo by John StClair – JohnStClairPhoto.com)

Oakland scored runs in 4 of their 5 at-bats as they dropped the Coffee County Lady Raider softball team 16 to 5 on Thursday night. The visiting Lady Patriots got off the bus hitting as they belted a pair of home runs as part of their 13 hit assault against the Lady Raiders.
Coffee County was held to a first inning single from Raven Rogers until the 4th inning as Oakland built a 14 to 0 lead. The Lady Raiders rallied in the 4th to plate 2 runs as they opened the inning with a walk and an Oakland error. Katie Rutledge beat out an infield single to load the bases before Rhi Roberson drove home Rogers and Paige Baker had an RBI ground out. In the 5th, a walk and a hit batter put a pair of runners on base ahead of Tori Bell’s monster home run to right center field to give the Lady Raiders some life. Rutledge got another single but was stranded at first as Coffee County was retired to end the game via the mercy rule.
Besides the 3 run home run, Bell reached base on an error and was hit by a pitch to be named the Thunder Radio player of the game. Bell’s home run was her third of the season. Rutledge finished the night going 2 for 2 and Rogers was 1 for 1 with a pair of walks for Coffee County.
Coffee County opens play in the Coffee County Classic on Friday with a 1:15 PM game versus Warren County in front of the CHS student body. The Lady Raiders will also take on Cookeville at 6 PM and Creek Wood at 7:30. All 3 of those games will be held at Terry Floyd Field and will be broadcast on Thunder Radio. Coffee County concludes play in the tournament on Saturday. Tournament games will be held at Dave King Park and Terry Floyd Field.
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Westwood’s Jacob Garms (file photo)

The Westwood Rockets baseball season came to a close on Thursday night as they dropped a 6 to 2 decision to the Vikings of Community in the opening round of the Duck River Valley Conference tournament. The game, held at Unionville, brought to a close the season for first year head coach Josh Morris who inherited a winless team from last season.
The Rockets had trouble generating offense on the night as they scattered 8 hits on the night but were forced to settle for single runs in the 1st and 6th innings. In the first, Jacob Garms reached base on a single and came around to score on Dylan Koon’s double. In the 6th inning, Skylar Bratcher got a 1 out double and scored on Nick Smith’s single to give the Rockets their 2 runs.
Garms finished the night going 2 for 4 at the plate with a double while Smith was 2 for 3 with a pair of singles. Zach Milan took the hard luck loss for the Rockets as Community was held to 5 hits. The Vikings did benefit from 9 walks and an error from the Westwood defense.

Logan Hale

The talented and deep Tullahoma Middle School golf teams each got a pair of wins over Coffee County and Westwood on Thursday in a three team middle school golf match at Lakewood Country Club.
In girls’ play, Olivia Lewis shot an 80 and Olivia Howell shot an 81 to lead the Coffee County Middle School team to a 2nd place finish in the meet. Macie Lawrence of Westwood shot a round of 70.
For the boys, Christopher Robinson carded a 50 to lead the Rockets to a 2nd place finish 5 strokes ahead of Coffee County. Nicholas Johnson had a 61, Gavin Prater shot a 76 and Andrew Green carded a 78. For the Red Raiders, Logan Hale got around in 57, Larson Meltzer and Xavier Bartley each had a 69 and Isaac Pauley shot a 75.
The Westwood and Coffee Middle golf teams return home on Monday when they will host Liberty and Harris at Willowbrook. Tee Time is set for 4 PM.

The Braves put together a steady offense against Clay Buchholz and salvaged the finale of a four-game series with the Red Sox by pulling out a 5-3 victory at Fenway Park on Thursday night. The win snapped an eight-game losing skid for Atlanta.

After Boston scored one in the first, the Braves rallied for three in the second and led for the rest of the night.
Nick Markakis had four hits and three RBIs from the leadoff spot. Freddie Freeman and No. 9 hitter Mallex Smith added three hits each, with Smith driving in two runs.
Jhoulys Chacin did enough to get the win, going five-plus innings, allowing six hits and two runs. Buchholz took the loss, giving up eight hits and five runs over 6 1/3 innings.
Trailing by a run after the first inning, the Braves sent seven batters to the plate in the second. With one out, four straight batters reached and three scored to take the lead. Jace Peterson started it off with a walk, followed by a bunt single by Erick Aybar, a run-scoring ground-rule double by Smith and a two-run single by Markakis.
With the Red Sox rallying in the bottom of the first, a strange play unfolded. After Dustin Pedroia doubled and Xander Bogaerts walked with one out, David Ortiz hit a grounder to first, and Freeman threw to second for the force, where shortstop Aybar was covering. However, the throw pulled Aybar off the bag, and second-base umpire (and crew chief) Joe West called Bogaerts safe. However, Bogaerts apparently didn’t realize he was called safe, and Aybar tagged him as he walked off the bag toward the dugout. Hanley Ramirez followed with an RBI single that could have scored two runs if not for the bizarre play.
With two outs, runners on second and third and the Braves leading by three runs in the seventh, left-hander Hunter Cervenka, a 27th-round pick of the Red Sox in the 2008 Draft who made his Major League debut on April 12, came in to face Ortiz for the first time in his career. On the sixth pitch, with a 3-2 count, Cervenka got Ortiz to ground out, ending the threat.
In the top of the sixth, Smith thought he had stolen second base for the Braves. But manager John Farrell challenged the call, and it was overturned after a review that took 2 minutes and 16 seconds. Smith did not maintain contact with the bag throughout his slide, and shortstop Bogaerts tagged him out.
In the top of the eighth, Smith was involved in another challenge play. This time, he was called out trying to steal third. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez challenged, but the call stood after a review of 2 minutes and 42 seconds.
Atlanta opens a three-game set at Wrigley Field on Friday at 3:20 p.m. CT, the first of six meetings between the Braves and Cubs this season. Aaron Blair gets the start after a busy week that saw the right-hander make his Major League debut on Sunday before being named the International League’s Pitcher of the Week for April 18-24 on Monday. On April 19 he earned his third Minors win of the season, going seven scoreless and hitless innings while striking out 10 for Triple-A Gwinnett.