The Coffee County Lady Raiders failed to provide enough offense to beat Tullahoma on Saturday in the District 8-AAA softball tournament. The Lady Raiders finished with only 3 hits on the day as the fell to the Lady Cats and Pitcher Amber Clark, 2-0.
The loss was the first this season for Coffee County Senior Brianna Jones as she is now 19-1.
Coffee County at 25-5-1 on the year will play Columbia Monday at 5pm in a loser’s bracket game. You can hear the game live on Thunder Radio.

“The girls played an amazing game today, actually an amazing three games today.”  Those are the words of CCMS softball coach Lana Creek as the Lady Raiders won three consecutive games to come out of the losers bracket to claim the CTC softball tournament title on Saturday in Tullahoma.  After falling to the losers bracket on Friday, and surviving a scare from North Franklin, Coffee County need a win over Tullahoma and a pair of wins over Warren County to win the championship.  Of her team, Creek said: “Their character won out today, they had a lot of things and a lot of people against us.”

Trailing 2 to 0 in the bottom of the last inning, Grace Pippenger ripped a bases clearing, 3 RBI triple to stop Tullahoma 3 to 2 in the opening game on Saturday.  Facing a tough Warren County team that gave Coffee County their only conference loss of the regular season, the Raiders broke open a 5 to 5 tie after 2 innings to claim a 10 to 6 win and set up a winner take all championship.

In the final, the Lady Raiders got 4 runs in the bottom of the 3^rd inning.  A leadoff single by Sierra Mahar and an RBI double along with a hit batter, a walk and an RBI sacrifice fly from Haley Richardson gave Coffee County a 4 to 1 lead.  The Lady Pioneers tied it up in the 4^th inning and that score held into extra innings.  After Warren County scored 2 runs in the 7^th, the Lady Raiders tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a homerun from Pippenger.  After opening the 8^th inning in the international tiebreaker, Coffee County was able to strand the inherited Pioneer runner at 3^rd base and then loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8^th.    Kyla Craig laced a 2 out single up the middle to score Shannah Frame giving the Lady Raiders an 8 to 7 win.  In addition to a 1^st place finish in the regular season, the Lady Raiders finished the year with a 15 and 5 record and the CTC championship.

After graduating an overwhelming majority of their offense from last season, this looked to be a rebuilding year for the Raider soccer team of Coffee County Middle School.  Instead, Coach Kenny Lockhart found new scoring threats, an improved back line and solid play in goal to advance to the Final 4 of the CTC Soccer Tournament on Saturday.  Entering Saturday as a huge underdog to top seeded Warren County, the clock finally stuck midnight on the feel good, Cinderella season of the Raiders.  With keeper Elisa Carter unavailable due to illness, the powerful Pioneers dropped Coffee County 8 to 0.  A matchup with Tullahoma in the consolation game ended in a 7 to 1 loss as Anakin Dilleha scored the lone goal on a corner kick for the Raiders.  Even with the loss, the Raiders finish the season with a winning record of 7 and 6 and a 4^th place conference finish.

Leads of 4 to 0 and 6 to 3 were not enough for the Coffee County CHS Red Raider baseball team on Saturday as 5^th and 6^th inning rallies by Tullahoma dropped the Raiders by a score of 7 to 6 in the loser’s bracket of the District 8AAA baseball tournament.  The Raiders got on the board first in the top of the 2^nd inning as they plated 3 runs.  Freshman Nathaniel Tate ripped a 2 RBI double for the big hit in the inning driving in J.P. Duncan and Zach Wise after Wise’s RBI double to drive in Wyatt Day.  Zach Holmes scored a run in the 3^rd on Duncan’s fielder’s choice. Tullahoma responded with 2 runs in the bottom of the 3^rd, Coffee responded as Wise got a 2 out double and scored on a error by the Wildcat’s 3^rd baseman.  Tullahoma banged out 5 hits in the 5^th to tie the game at 6 before plating the winning run in the 6^th inning on a pair of Coffee County errors.  Zach Wise was 2 for 4 on the day with a pair of doubles and an RBI while Day and Peyton Booth were 2 for 4 with a pair of singles.  Chase Dixon was 3 for 3 for Tullahoma.  The loss ends the season for the Red Raiders.

A 2 out, 2 RBI single by Amanda Mukai capped a 5th inning comeback for the Coffee County Middle School softball team on Friday night in the loser’s bracket semifinals of CTC Conference Softball Tournament being held in Tullahoma. The 4 to 3 win over North Franklin kept Coffee County alive in the double elimination tournament. The Lady Raiders were pushed to the loser’s bracket by a Tullahoma comeback earlier on Friday night.
In the nightcap, a single run in the 2nd by Coffee County was eclipsed by 3 unearned runs by North Franklin in the 4th inning. Coffee County strung together 2 singles in the second as Sierra Mahar and Jayden Scheller got the hits for Coffee County with Scheller’s run scoring just ahead of Mahar being put out trying to advance to 2nd. In the 5th, Mahar led off with her 2nd hit of the night. After a 1 out walk of Ashley Evans, Gracie Pippenger drilled an RBI single to score Mahar and make it a 1 run game. WIth Evans at 3rd and Pippenger at 2nd, Mukai stepped up with 2 outs and drilled a rocket past the diving shortstop to plate the tying and winning runs and advance Coffee County to the loser’s bracket final on Saturday.
The Lady Raiders were dropped into the loser’s bracket by an unearned run in the top of the 6th inning as Tullahoma scratched out a 3 to 2 extra inning win over Coffee County in the Lady Raiders first game on Friday. The Lady Raiders got both of their runs in the first inning as Ashley Evans scored on a passed ball and Gracie Pippenger was driven in on a ground out by Haley Richardson. Coffee Middle was held to 5 hits as Hayden Scheller had 2 hits and Erin Ferrell ripped a double.
The Lady Raiders will take on the loser of Saturday morning’s Warren County and Tullahoma winner’s bracket final at 11:00 AM. With a win there, Coffee County would need to win at 1:00 PM to force the “if necessary” game at 3:00. The CTC Conference Tournament is being held at East Middle School in Tullahoma.

A 13 run explosion in the second inning was enough to power the Lady Rocket softball team to a 19 to 4 win over Riverside Christian on Friday afternoon at Westwood.  Sarah West and Alexcia Barnes were  each 3 for 3 for the game as Westwood banged out 15 hits.  West and Carlee Sullivan each were a home run shy of the cycle while Keyleigh Alford had a single, a triple and 3 RBI.  Hallie Wimberly got the win in the circle as she scattered 5 hits with 3 strikeouts.  Westwood will be at home on Saturday for a doubleheader with Community.   First pitch is scheduled for noon at Lady Rocket Field.