With the beginning of the fall sports season right around the corner, the Coffee County CHS volleyball team has begun preseason practice looking to repeat as District 8AAA champions.  The Lady Raiders, coming off a skills camp last week, will travel to Unionville of Wednesday through Friday for a team camp hosted by Eagleville High School.  The Lady Raiders will play 3 games on Wednesday as they take on Middle Tennessee Christian at noon, Stewart’s Creek at 1:30 and Columbia Academy at 4:30.  All 3 of those games will take place at Community Middle School.  On Thursday, the pools will be shuffled and they will play 3 more pools games before being seeded into a double elimination bracket for Friday.

The CHS golf team will hold tryouts for the 2015-16 Golf team on Monday, July 13th beginning at 9 AM at Willowbrook Golf Course. Student athletes will to bring with them their own golf equipment plus the completed & signed physical/consent forms are REQUIRED. You can download the forms at: http://images.pcmac.org/SiSFiles/Schools/TN/CoffeeCountySchools/CoffeeCountyCentralHighSchool/Uploads/Forms/tssaa_med_form.pdf
For more information, contact Head Coach Mike Ray at: 931-247-4156 OR 723-5159

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The Coffee County CHS basketball team will hold a skills camp for children in grades 3 thru 8 on July 13th thru 16th at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. Cost for the 4 day camp is $50 and camp sessions will go from 9:00 AM to noon each day. Campers will grouped by age and skill level and will receive daily instruction from the Red Raider basketball team and coaches. There will be games and contests and each camper will receive a free camp T-Shirt. If you have questions, you can contact head coach Micah Williams at: williamsm@k12coffee.net or call him at: 931-492-2123.

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The Coffee County Central High School boys soccer team will have tryouts for incoming freshmen and new players on Monday and Tuesday, July 13 and 14, from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM.
Summer practice for returning players and new players who make the team will be Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, July 27, 28, and 30, from 7:00 to 9:30 PM.

Players from last year…either middle school or high school…who had a valid physical, that physical is still valid. Those who did not have a valid physical for the 2014-2015 school year will need to get a physical before coming to tryouts. Dr. Trussler will do physicals for any soccer player needing them on Wednesday, July 22, beginning at 1:30. There will be no charge for the physical. The TSSAA forms should be downloaded and the paperwork should be completed before the physical. If you have any questions, please contact Coach Harper.

Charlie Blackmon drove in four runs and All-Star Troy Tulowitzki cracked a three-run homer as the Rockies beat the Braves, 11-3, on Sunday at Coors Field. The Rockies completed a four-game sweep — their first home sweep this season.

Blackmon delivered a two-run, bases-loaded single in the second and another two-run single in the sixth — both in left-on-left confrontations with losing pitcher Alex Wood (6-6). Tulowitzki followed Blackmon’s sixth-inning single with his 10th homer this season. Drew Stubbs added his fifth homer — a two-run shot — in the eighth off David Carpenter.

“We’ll try to get hot, stay hot,” said Tulowitzki, who will join third baseman Nolan Arenado and second baseman DJ LeMahieu in Tuesday’s All-Star Game presented by T-Mobile in Cincinnati. “We haven’t gone on quite a streak yet. This could be the start of something.”
The hit in the sixth broke a 3-3 tie and made a winner of Rockies starting pitcher Chad Bettis (5-4). Coming off his worst career start (10 runs, eight hits in 2 1/3 innings against the Angels), Bettis went six innings and gave up three runs — on RBI singles by Kelly Johnson and A.J. Pierzynski and an RBI double by Jonny Gomes, all in the sixth — on six hits. Bettis struck out eight and walked five.

“We just didn’t pitch very well or play very well for four days,” Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. ” After the way we played in Milwaukee for the first two days and then to come in here and play like that, it’s baseball.”
Blackmon, whose tie-breaking single came with two outs and a 1-2 count, went 9-for-18 (.500) during the just-completed 4-2 homestand. Since June 13, Blackmon is hitting .336 (36-for-107).

After Gomes highlighted Atlanta’s three-run sixth with a game-tying double, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez elected to allow Wood to hit with one out and the bases loaded. Wood struck out and then surrendered three hits, including Blackmon’s two-run single in the bottom half of the inning. The Atlanta lefty allowed 10 hits for the third time in his past four starts and was charged with a career-high seven earned runs over 5 2/3 innings.

Bettis struggled with his delivery in his last two starts, but despite the walks (one was intentional), was better Sunday. But he was at his best when the game nearly slipped away in the sixth. But after Gomes’ one-out double tied the game, Bettis intentionally walked Andrelton Simmons, fanned Wood, and forced Jace Peterson into a grounder to short.
“I wasn’t ready to hand the ball over,” Bettis said. “I needed to make pitches. I knew they weren’t necessarily hitting them too well except for Gomes. I knew I had them right where I wanted.”

The Braves, who have lost five straight, tallied runs in just five of the 36 innings they batted during this four-game series. They had a chance to set the tone on Sunday when Eury Perez doubled in the first inning and Nick Markakis followed with a one-out walk. But Bettis escaped by recording consecutive strikeouts of Johnson and Juan Uribe.

Julio Teheran will take the mound when the Braves come out of the All-Star break on Friday to begin a three-game series against the Cubs at Turner Field. Teheran endured a rough first half, but he went 5-0 with a 2.04 ERA in eight home starts.  First pitch is set for 6:35 PM and you will be able to hear that broadcast here on Thunder Radio.

Atlanta Braves closer Jason Grilli

Braves closer Jason Grilli suffered a season-ending left Achillies injury as he attempted to cover first base during the ninth inning of Saturday afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field.

As Grilli fell in the infield grass and remained there until being carted off the field while holding his head between his hands, it was immediately apparent that he had suffered a significant injury. The Braves confirmed the news approximately 30 minutes later, announcing that the 38-year-old closer had ruptured his left Achilles tendon and would miss the remainder of this season.
“[Grilli] is a grinder,” Braves left fielder Jonny Gomes said. “The guy is a nomad who has been around. Everything he is about is about hard work and health. That is what has got him here. We just have to hope for the be

st.”
When Drew Stubbs opened the bottom of the ninth inning with a grounder to first baseman Chris Johnson, Grilli took a few strides toward first base before crumpling to the ground in obvious pain.
“I was about to throw him the ball and I saw the look on his face as he was going down,” Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s not good at all. He just started screaming. It looked pretty darn painful.”
Shortly after racing on the field to attend to Grilli as he remained on the ground writhing in pain, Braves head athletic trainer Jeff Porter signaled for the Rockies to bring a cart on the field.
Even after Stubbs ended up scoring the winning run on a Carlos Gonzalez bloop single that fell between Andrelton Simmons and Cameron Maybin in shallow center field, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said his thoughts were with Grilli.
“Him laying on the ground out there like that, it didn’t look good,” the Braves skipper said. “You could see what kind of pain he was feeling as he was out there on the field.”
According to mayoclinic.org, “surgery is often the best option to repair an Achilles tendon rupture. For many people, however, nonsurgical treatment works just as well.” It was not immediately known what course of treatment Grilli would undergo.
This unfortunate development literally added injury to insult for the Braves, who have lost four straight games. They will now spend the rest of the season without a closer who had converted 24 of his 26 save opportunities, and approach the non-waiver Trade Deadline without what might have been their best trade chip.
Since assuming the closer’s role when Craig Kimbrel was traded the day before Opening Day, Grilli had become the strong leader Atlanta’s bullpen needed. Jim Johnson will likely now handle the closing duties, but he might now also stand as the Braves’ most attractive trade piece leading into the Trade Deadline.

The Memphis Redbirds legged out 13 hits, including six for extra bases, during a 12-3 rout of the Nashville Sounds on Sunday afternoon at AutoZone Park in the final game before the All-Star break.

With the loss, the Sounds (41-50) dropped three of five to their cross-state rivals in the series and finished the road trip with a 4-5 record.

Memphis left-hander Tyler Lyons (6-4) picked up the victory by twirling his seventh quality start of the year, holding Nashville to two runs on five hits while fanning six over his seven innings of work.

Max Muncy opened the day’s scoring when he homered for the second straight day, crushing a two-run homer to right off Lyons in the top of the second inning. Dayan Viciedo (2-for-3), who preceded Muncy with a single and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, also scored on the longball, Muncy’s fourth of the year as a Sound.

Nashville finished with 12 home runs on their nine-game road trip and have belted 14 big flies in July, the club’s best monthly total of the year (with 16 games left to play before August).

Memphis jumped out to a 4-2 lead with a four-run third against Sounds starter Nate Long. After the Redbirds pieced together three consecutive one-out singles to etch across the first run, right fielder Jeremy Hazelbaker smashed a two-out, three-run homer to right off the Nashville right-hander to put the home team on top, a lead they would never relinquish.

The Redbirds stretched their lead to 6-2 in the fourth on a two-run Travis Tartamella single off Long (1-2), who was tagged with the loss after surrendering six runs on seven hits over his five frames of work.

Memphis shortstop Greg Garcia plated Rafael Ortega with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly against Sounds reliever Aaron Kurcz, which extended the ‘Birds advantage to 7-2.

After Alex Mejia’s two-out RBI double in the seventh inning chased Kurcz from the contest, Memphis tacked on four more runs against Ryan Cook in the eighth. Stephen Piscotty mashed a two-run homer to left-center, the infielder’s 11th roundtripper of the season, and Nick Martini added a two-run double.

The Sounds closed out the scoring in the top of the ninth against an inefficient Keith Butler, who issued four walks in the frame including a four-pitch, bases-loaded free pass to Craig Gentry with two outs to force in the afternoon’s final run.

The Sounds enjoy the next three days off during the Triple-A All-Star break before resuming play with a 7:05 p.m. home contest at First Tennessee Park on Thursday evening, when they welcome the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA-Royals) to Music City. Left-hander Barry Zito (6-7, 3.60) will toe the slab for the Sounds in Thursday’s opener of a four-game series. Omaha has not announced its starting pitcher for the contest.

Outfielder Jason Pridie will represent Nashville and the Pacific Coast League during Wednesday’s Triple-A All-Star Game at Werner Park in Papillion, Neb. The 7:00 p.m. CT contest will air nationally on the MLB Network.