Hayden Skipper of CCMS Baseball

The Coffee County Middle School baseball team scored 8 unanswered runs against Tullahoma on Wednesday night to earn a split in their season series with the Wildcats by a score of 10 to 5. Trailing 3 to 2 entering the 3rd inning, Hayden Skipper laced a 2 out, 2 strike pitch over the right field fence to score Garret Davis and give Coffee County a lead they would never relinquish. Skipper finished the night going 3 for 3 with a walk and 4 runs scored. Coach Rodney Meeker, who was worried about having enough healthy pitching to keep Tullahoma at bay, got 4 strong innings in the start by Skipper to get the win. Braden Brown pitched the final 3 innings to earn the 9 out save. Brandon Jernigan was 2 for 3 with a triple and 4 RBI for Coffee County and Davis had a double and scored twice in the revenge win for the Raiders. The CCMS varsity baseball team will now await the conference tournament which begins next week in McMinnville. The Raiders will host the JV conference tournament this weekend beginning on Friday. We will keep you updated on the times and pairings.

Makayla Morgan

The Coffee County tennis teams earned a split with Tullahoma on Wednesday night in a pair of battles held on the Cats home court. The Lady Raiders won 6 of their 7 matches as they dispatched the kittens 6 to 1. Maddie Taylor, Ali Shelton, Kayla Wright and Makayla Morgan all captured singles wins while Taylor teamed with Shelton and Wright and Morgan paired up in doubles play for wins. The win raises the Lady Raiders district record to 4 and 2 on the season. The Red Raiders battled to the wire in each of their 5 singles matches, including Shilp Patel taking his match to the tiebreaker, before being swept by the Wildcats. The Raider netters return home on Friday afternoon for a 4 PM match-up with Warren County.

Westwood pitcher Haidyn Campbell

The Westwood Lady Rockets dropped their opening round game in the Duck River Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday night to Liberty 5 to 1. The Lady Rockets banged out 6 hits on the night, but could not string together a rally to support the strong pitching performance of Haidyn Campbell. Amber Smith has a single and 3 stolen bases to tally Westwood’s only run. Alex Nelson had a double for Westwood. Campbell, a 6th grader had 9 strikeouts on the game as she surrendered only 3 earned runs.

Jaret Kemper of Westwood tennis

Jaret Kemper earned a win in singles play and the girls team of Luz Maria Basurto and Antonia Ayala captured their doubles match as both Westwood tennis teams fell in matches at Lewisburg on Wednesday. Westwood returns to the court on Tuesday when they travel across town to take on the Coffee County Middle School tennis teams. That match is set to get underway at 4 PM at the Coffee County Raider Academy.

Right-hander Tanner Roark was scheduled to pitch on Thursday afternoon against the Braves, but there was a change of plans. With Stephen Strasburg out with the flu, the Nationals needed Roark to make the start a day earlier.

The change of plans didn’t hurt Roark on Wednesday night, as he pitched seven shutout innings in the Nationals’ 3-0 win over the winless Braves at Nationals Park.
“We gave him 24 hours to prepare, and he came through big time,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “He gave us seven innings, got our bullpen kind of back in order, and we’re ready to roll.”
Roark didn’t have a problem pitching a day early. In fact, he was pitching on normal rest anyway because of the day off last Friday and rainout the following day.
“I still felt strong and ready to go. I was able to get a good night’s sleep,” Roark said. “I was locating the fastball and just executing pitches for the most part. I have to credit Willie [catcher Wilson Ramos]. He called a great game.”
Matt Wisler retired 18 of the 23 Nationals batters he faced, but he also surrendered a solo homer to Stephen Drew and a two-run shot to Jayson Werth in the fourth inning. The Braves recorded just five hits and stranded seven runners en route to opening this season with an eighth straight loss.
“I thought we had good at-bats off Roark,” said Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who had a pair of singles. “We had a bunch of guys on base and had a few chances there. We just needed to come up with the big hit. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well for us. They hit a few balls out of the park, and it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Washington scored all three runs on home runs in the fourth inning. On a 2-2 pitch, Drew went deep over the right-center-field wall to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead. Three batters later, Werth swung at the first pitch from Wisler and hit a two-run homer over the left-center-field fence. It was the first homer of the season for both Drew and Werth.
Wisler retired nine of the 10 batters he faced before Drew’s home run, and he retired eight of the nine batters he faced after Werth’s home run. The young right-hander has made great strides since the end of last season, but with just 21 starts under his belt, he is still not a finished product. Six of the seven runs he has surrendered through his first two starts have been tallied within just two of his 13 innings.
“It was just two mistake pitches, both up in the zone,” Wisler said. “I tried to go in on Stephen Drew and it just leaked back over the middle and he put a pretty good swing on it. Then to Werth, I tried to go down and away and just tried to do too much with it and left it up and he took care of it.”
After Mallex Smith notched his first career stolen base and advanced on a wild pitch that gave the Braves runners at second and third with two outs in the fifth, Freddie Freeman looked at a called third strike. Freeman went down looking again in the eighth inning to leave him with two hits, seven walks and nine strikeouts through his first 33 plate appearances.
“We’ve got to get him in the cage and get him right somehow,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “That’s a big part of our lineup. For me, it’s just a matter of time. You’ve seen him when he gets hot, he can carry the whole club.”
The Braves have now lost 12 straight games at Nationals Park. When they last won a road game against the Nationals on Sept. 10, 2014, Aaron Harang was the starting pitcher and Melvin Upton Jr. homered.
Julio Teheran will take the mound as the Braves close this four-game series on Thursday at 3:05 p.m. CT. Teheran limited the Nationals to two solo homers over six innings on Opening Day, but he lasted just four innings in Saturday’s start against the Cardinals.

Matt McBride blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Nashville Sounds to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in front of 4,911 fans Wednesday afternoon at First Tennessee Park.

Nashville held a 1-0 lead for the better part of the afternoon. In the second, Rangel Ravelo doubled to the gap in left-center to score Matt Olson from first base. From there, the starting pitchers went on cruise control.

Jesse Hahn turned in his second dominant outing in a row. The right-hander tossed six shutout innings and limited the Sky Sox to just four hits. He walked one and recorded six strikeouts in the no decision. Hahn has not allowed a run in 12 innings this year.

Junior Guerra was nearly as impressive on the other side. The fellow right-hander held Nashville to just one run on one hit in seven innings. He issued one free pass and struck out seven.

The Sky Sox tied the game in the seventh when Hernan Perez launched a solo shot off Sounds’ reliever J.B. Wendelken.

The tie game didn’t last long as McBride’s long ball came nearly 15 minutes after Perez hit his.

Patrick Schuster got the ninth for Nashville. He walked Andy Wilkins to start the inning, but quickly worked out of the jam. The southpaw retired Perez on a fly out and got Garin Cecchini to bounce into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Andrew Triggs picked up his second win of the season after working a scoreless eighth. Austin Ross, who served up the homer to McBride, was charged with the loss. Schuster earned his first save of the season.

The Sounds and Sky Sox play the series finale Thursday night at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Dillon Overton (0-1, 2.25) starts for Nashville against left-hander Brent Suter (0-1, 6.75) for Colorado Springs. 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. Season ticket memberships are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.