Jayda Wright

The Coffee County Middle School tennis teams fought hard in a pair of matches in Shelbyville on Tuesday against Harris. The Lady Raiders got a pair of singles wins and a tie as they fell by a score of 4-2-1. Jayda Wright and Anna Amado captured the singles wins while Kylie Brown fought to a 6-6 tie. In boys action, Joseph Sadler and Ben Davis captured victories in singles action while the doubles team of Sadler and Luke Irwin Took a 6-0 decision in doubles as the Red Raiders fell 4 to 3. Coffee County is back on the court on Friday when they travel to take on Lewisburg. First serve is set for 4 PM.

Larson Meltzer follows thru on a shot on Tuesday(Photo provided)

The Coffee County Middle School golf teams opened their season on Tuesday when they joined Westwood to take on Liberty and Harris in Shelbyville at the Riverbend Country Club. Facing heavy graduation losses, the Raiders and Lady Raiders both came home with 3rd place finishes on the day. He Lady Rockets finished in 2nd place while the boys settled for a 4th place finish. Macie Lawrence shot a low round of 70 for Westwood as Elizabeth Brown finished at 72. For the Lady Raiders, Olivia Howell shot a 79 while Olivia Lewis cared an 80. For the Red Raiders, Logan Hale led Coffee County in scoring with a 53. Xavier Bartley added a 61, Larson Meltzer carded a 68 and Issac Pauley got around in 73. Westwood was paced by Nicholas Jonson’s 57. Christopher Robinson carded a 60, Gavin Prater shot a 76 edging Andrew Green who finished at 77. The Raider and Rocket golfers will travel to Bear Trace on Thursday for another 4 team match. They will take on North and South Franklin with the shotgun start going off at 3:30 PM.

Haidyn Campbell

The Westwood softball team closed out the regular season on Tuesday as they dropped an 11 to 0 decision to Cannon County at Lady Rocket Field. Westwood was able to bang out 6 hits but was plagued by 11 strikeouts in the contest. Haidyn Campbell was 2 for 2 for the Lady Rockets. Westwood will now await the pairings for the conference tournament which is set to get underway on Thursday. Thunder Radio will keep you updated on the time and location for Westwood’s tournament opener.

The Colorado Springs Sky Sox scored a late run and topped the Nashville Sounds, 4-3, Tuesday night in front of 4,544 fans at First Tennessee Park.

The Sounds grabbed an early lead and tied it late only to see both disappear. Michael Reed’s two-out, run-scoring base hit in the eighth inning proved to be the difference.

Both starters made quick work of the other lineup in the first two innings. Chris Smith and Zach Davies combined to retire the first 12 batters of the game. Nashville broke through against Davies in the third when Rangel Ravelo led off the inning with a sharp single to right field.

Bruce Maxwell drew a walk to put two runners on for Tyler Ladendorf who came through with a base hit to left-center to score Ravelo and give the Sounds a 1-0 lead.

Alex Presley and the Sky Sox didn’t waste any time getting even. Presley led off the fourth with a solo blast off Smith to make it 1-1. Orlando Arcia and Michael Reed followed with hits, and Hernan Perez drove in both to give Colorado Springs a 3-1 lead.

It stayed 3-1 until the Sounds mounted a rally in the seventh. Matt Olson started it when he drew a one-out walk off Jim Fuller. Ravelo and Max Muncy followed Olson with back-to-back singles to load the bases.

Maxwell delivered with a game-tying, two-run single to the right side. However, the Sounds couldn’t cash in with runners at the corners and one out. Ladendorf bounced into a fielder’s choice and Joey Wendle was retired on a fly out to left to keep the game knotted at 3-3.

The Sky Sox seized the opportunity and quickly turned it in their favor. Eric Young, Jr. drew a one-out walk off Eduard Santos and came around to score on a two-out base hit by Michael Reed.
The Sounds had Muncy on second base in the bottom of the ninth with nobody out, but couldn’t score him.

Fuller picked up the win despite the blown save and Santos was tagged with the loss. Damien Magnifico worked two innings for the Sky Sox and earned the save.

The Sounds and Sky Sox play game three of the four-game series Wednesday afternoon. Right-hander Jesse Hahn (0-0, 0.00) starts for Nashville against right-hander Junior Guerra (0-1, 3.60) for Colorado Springs. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 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.

The Nationals and Braves found themselves in a pitchers’ duel on Tuesday night at Nationals Park. When it was over, the Nationals won the game, 2-1, on a double by Bryce Harper.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the eighth inning. With runners on first and second, two outs and Braves left-hander Eric O’Flaherty on the mound, Harper swung at the first pitch and blooped a double down the left-field line, scoring Stephen Drew and Anthony Rendon.
“O’Flaherty is tough,” Harper said. “I faced him twice in previous games. He is very good out there, so I was trying to jump on something early, and it worked out.”
Nationals manager Dusty Baker wasn’t surprised that Harper swung at the first pitch and was able to get the game-winning hit.
“Usually, the best pitch to hit with runners on base or in scoring position is usually the first pitch,” Baker said. “I was always taught by Jim Gilliam and some quality hitters — like Tony Perez — that that first pitch is usually the best pitch because [the pitcher is] going to try to get ahead of you, and then he’s going to work on you.
“[O’Flaherty] didn’t want to get behind. He got the pitch up. [Harper] had a pretty good knock. You keep hearing me say about a good idea — he has a good idea about what he’s looking for and what to hit.”
The game began with left-hander Gio Gonzalez starting for Washington and right-hander Jhoulys Chacin on the hill for Atlanta, which has lost seven straight games to open this season. Both starters pitched six shutout innings and ended up with a no-decision.
“Losing [stinks], no matter how you lose,” Braves catcher Tyler Flowers said. “It’s been a tough stretch. I feel like we’re playing good ball. We just can’t get that big hit or that big out. Or, we come up with some kind of little miscue or something that kind of snowballs an inning on us. We’re getting very close. We’re all still very positive in here.”
Nationals left-hander Oliver Perez started the eighth inning off by walking the first two batters he faced, Mallex Smith and Nick Markakis. After Perez struck out Freddie Freeman, he was taken out of the game in favor of Blake Treinen. Treinen allowed a bloop single to Adonis Garcia to load the bases, but the right-hander induced Jeff Francoeur to hit into a double play to end the threat.
Baker had nothing but praise for Treinen, who has pitched three games in a row.
“This is why you like that sinkerballer on your staff, because they throw that double-play ground ball,” Baker said. “Any time you throw one pitch and get two outs and get out of trouble, that’s a very, very valuable man.”
After Gordon Beckham doubled with two outs in the seventh, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez made the questionable decision to pinch-hit Jace Peterson for Chacin, who needed just 69 pitches to complete his six scoreless innings. The veteran right-hander notched the most valuable of his eight strikeouts when he got Michael Taylor to swing through a 1-2 fastball to strand runners at second and third base in the fifth.
Gonzalez pitched in his first game since March 27 and didn’t skip a beat, throwing six shutout innings while striking out four batters. The Braves had a chance to score in the second, but the lefty battled to keep the game scoreless. Atlanta had runners on first and second with no outs, but Flowers struck out, Beckham flied out to Harper in right field and Chacin popped up to second baseman Daniel Murphy to end the threat.
Instead of bringing in the left-handed-hitting Kelly Johnson to face Treinen with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, Gonzalez stuck with the righty-swinging Francoeur, who grounded into a double play. After the Nationals put two runners on with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, Gonzalez passed on using closer Arodys Vizcaino and instead brought O’Flaherty in to create the lefty-lefty matchup that Harper won.
“You try to create things, think outside the box and do whatever you have to do to go against the grain to try to win and get something going,” Gonzalez said. “Who would have thought Kelly Johnson [against left-hander Felipe Rivero] would have hit a double off the wall [for an RBI in the ninth inning]? That’s a favorable matchup for them, you would think. We get a good situation with O’Flaherty against Harper, and he kind of mis-hits it a little bit and gets two runs out of it.”
Matt Wisler will take the mound when Atlanta and Washington resume this four-game set on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. CT. Wisler pitched effectively during Friday’s season debut against the Cardinals, but he was hurt by defensive miscues and a seventh-inning solo homer.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that game on the Braves Radio Network beginning at 6.