Monday ushers in the beginning of the high school spring sports season and Thunder Radio’s annual coverage of Coffee County baseball and softball. Lucky Knott will be bringing you the broadcast of tonight’s Lady Raider softball opening night game. The Lady Raiders will host Shelbyville tonight at 7 PM in the debut of Steve Wilder as the new Coffee County coach. You can hear the broadcast, beginning with the pregame show at 6:50 PM.
The CHS baseball team opens the David Martin era on Monday night at home as well as they welcome in Shelbyville on Alumni Night. All former baseball alumni are invited to attend.  The 1996 Red Raider district championship team be will honored as special guests and former Red Raider coach Doug Green will be on hand to throw out the first pitch.   The Red Raiders travel to Shelbyville on Tuesday in the 2nd game of the season series.  Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you exclusive coverage of that 5 PM contest as Lucky Knott will be on the air at 4:50 PM with the pregame show.
The CHS tennis team will open their season at home when they welcome Shelbyville to their home courts at Fred Deadman Park. The Lady Raiders are the defending District 8AAA champions as they defeated the Eaglettes in the district tournament finals last May.
The Coffee County Middle School track team opens their season on Monday as well when they host North Franklin and Warren County at Carden-Jarrell Field. The field events are scheduled to begin at 4 PM. The Lady Raider track team is the defending CTC conference champions. The CCMS baseball and softball are also at home on Monday as they both are hosting Harris in conference games. And the Westwood softball team travels to Woodbury to take on Cannon County in a 5:30 PM non-conference game.  As always, Thunder Radio will keep you up to date on the results AND any cancellations or schedule changes.

Felix Salinas

Oh, just another 4 goal performance by Felix Salinas and a shutout by the Westwood defense on Friday night in middle school soccer. The Westwood Rockets ran their record to 6 and 0 on the season and 4 and 0 in conference play on Friday night with a 6 to 0 win over Riverside Christian at Dyer-Bouldin Field. Salinas notched a 1st half hat trick with tallies in the 2nd, 10th and 18th minutes to stake the Rockets to a 3 to 0 halftime lead. Three minutes into the second half, Leo Basurto hooked a corner kick into the Knight’s net to make the score 4 to 0. Andres Cavalie added a goal in the 48th minute before Salinas closed out the scoring in the 50th minute on a cross from Jalen Shelton. Cavalie, Basurto and Eliot Sain also added assists for the Rockets. The Westwood defense had their best showing of the year not allowing a single Riverside shot on frame for the match. Westwood is back in action on Tuesday when the travel to Bell Buckle to take on Webb. That match is set to kick off at 4:30 PM

Noah Bradshaw of CCMS Baseball

The Golden Knights baseball team used a 2 run first inning to jump on the Coffee County Middle School Red Raiders and walk off to a big non-conference win on Saturday 15 to 1.  The Raiders tried digging out of the hole in the bottom of the 1^st when Blanton Brown scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to one run, but Rock Springs responded with a 6 run 2^nd inning to make the comeback win improbable for the Red & Black.  Noah Bradshaw reached base twice, on an error in the first inning and again on Coffee County’s lone hit in the 5^th inning.  Brown reached base twice on a pair of walks and scored the lone run for Coffee County.  Garret Davis had a walk and reached base when he was hit by a pitch.  The Red Raiders return to conference play on Monday night when they play host to Harris at 5 PM at CCMS.

Westwood head coach Josh Morris talks to his team between innings in a recent game

The Westwood Rockets baseball team kept a very strong Middle Tennessee Christian squad in check for 6 full innings before falling 6 to 0 on Friday night at Fred Deadman Park. The Rockets held MTCS to 3 runs in the first 6 innings before the Cougars strung together 3 hits, coupled with a Westwood error, to plate 3 runs in the top of the 7th inning. That error was the lone blemish for the Rockets defense on the night as Westwood turned 2 double plays, picked a runner off of 2nd base and caught a runner stealing. Offensively, Westwood was held to 3 hits on the night. Jacob Grams had a pair of singles for Westwood and Austin Burch added a double. Westwood will return to action on Tuesday night when they welcome Cascade to Looney Riddle Field at Fred Deadman Park. The conference tilt is scheduled for a 5 PM first pitch.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

All good things must eventually come to an end. The Nashville Predators fell 4-2 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, seeing their franchise-record, 14-game point streak come to a close. Nashville’s streak of 13 consecutive road games with at least a point also ended with the loss.

“Tonight, there’s no question we didn’t play very well in the first period, and we were slow to get off the mark,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “The second and third period we took over the game, but they got a bounce off of a shin guard for a goal, and we couldn’t get the one to tie it up and that’s what you get for digging yourself a hole in the first period.”

Nashville fell behind by one and then two goals in the opening frame, as forwards Sven Baertschi and Derek Dorsett found twine in the period’s final three minutes to put the Canucks up 2-0 at the end of the first.

The tide started to turn over the first half of the middle stanza with the Predators pounding the Canucks net and hounding Vancouver on the forecheck. Mike Fisher broke through for the Predators at 9:17 of the second, deflecting a Roman Josi feed into the cage. The play began with Miikka Salomaki sending a spinning pass from the halfwall up to Shea Weber for a one-touch pass to Josi with Fisher ultimately claiming his 11th of the season.

After Bo Horvat gave the Canucks a two-goal lead once more, it was Josi dishing again, this time with a slick pass to Vancouver native Colton Sissons for his second goal in three games, one-timing the feed past Ryan Miller to bring the Preds to within a goal once more.

Nashville continued the pressure into the final period, but Miller finished with 35 saves on the night to hand the Preds their first regulation loss since Feb. 9.

The Predators picked up 23 points in the standings over the course of the 14-game stretch and currently sit seven points up in the race for the first Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

“Really important, it’s a tight playoff race and we need all the points we can get,” Josi said. “It got us some separation from the teams below us, but it’s still a tight race and we’re nowhere near the playoffs yet, so we have to keep it going and get points along the way here.”

The Predators will finish their current five-game road trip on Monday night in Edmonton against the Oilers.  Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast following Coffee County Central High School softball.

The Tennessee Area 13 Special Olympics, Lower Cumberland Region has a pair of events coming up and the public is encouraged to get involved. There will be a chili cookoff on Wednesday, March 23rd at Prater’s BBQ with all proceeds going to Area 13 Special Olympics. Contestants’ entry fee is $10 and folks can sample the chili for $5. For more information, you can visit the Coffee Coaches Show Facebook page.
The Area 13 Summer Games will be contested on Thursday, April 28th at Tullahoma High School. As always, volunteers are needed. If you would like to donate your time to this worthy cause, you can visit the Area 13 Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Special-Olympics-Tennessee-Area-13-Lower-Cumberland-Region-1471347953088290/ . Registration begins at 8:00 AM, Opening Ceremonies begin at 9:15, with the games starting at 9:30.. Rain Date is Tuesday May 3rd. Special Olympics also has event t-shirts for sale. The participating team names will be on the back of the shirts and the cost is $9.00 each.