Haidyn Campbell of CHS softball

The Coffee County CHS softball team traveled to Alabama on Thursday for a weekend of softball in the Bob Jones Invitational.  The Lady Raiders opened their road trip with a contest against Athens, AL.   A dominant pitching performance and a pair of home runs lifted the Lady Raiders to a 6 to 0 win.

Coffee County was held to 4 hits, with 2 of them being home runs.  Sarah West got the Lady Raiders on the board with a 2 out solo home run in the bottom of the 1^st inning.  In the 3^rd inning, Haidyn Campbell led off the inning with a home run to put Coffee County up 2 to 0.  Eleven Lady Raiders ended up coming to the plate in 3^rd inning as 5 walks and 3 hits allowed Coffee County to put 4 more runs in the decisive frame.  Keri Munn tossed a 3 hitter striking 4 in the shutout performance.

The Lady Raiders return to action on Friday and Saturday as they will play a pair of pool games on Friday, followed by single elimination bracket play on Saturday.  Coffee County will play Rogers, AL at 4 PM and Madison Co, AL at 7:30 PM.

Felix Salinas of CHS soccer

The Coffee County CHS soccer team welcomed DeKalb County to Carden-Jarrell Field on Thursday night for a non-district friendly.   A pair of goals by Felix Salinas helped lift the Raiders to a 2 to 1.

Salinas put Coffee County on the board in the first half as he netted a pass from Briggs Haithcock to make the score 1 to 0.  DeKalb County tied the match to send it to intermission leveled at 1.   It appeared the match was going to end as a draw until Salinas scored in the final minute to lift the Red Raiders to their 2^nd straight win.

The Red Raiders return to district action on Tuesday when they travel to Fayetteville to take on Lincoln County.   That district match will kick off at 7 PM.

Kylie Millaway of CHS tennis 2019[Photo courtesy of Janice Talley]

The Lady Raiders got singles wins by Lauren Perry(8 to 2), Natalie Elzeer(8 to 1), Wren Lawson(8 to 2), Kylie Millaway(9 to 7) and Emma Fulks(8 to 4).  In doubles play, Elzeer and Lawson won their match 8 to 3 while the team of Perry and Fulks got an 8 to 0 win.

The Red Raiders won 4 of their 5 singles matches as Benedict Edinger(8 to 1), Jonah Rollman(8 to 2), Johnathan Welch(8 to 0)and Landon Booth(8 to 4) got wins.  The Red Raiders swept the 2 doubles matches as the team of Edinger and Jaden Talley won 8 to 5 and the team of Rollman and Welch won 8 to 6.

Coffee County will return to action on Tuesday when they host Shelbyville.  First serve is set for 4 PM at the Raider Academy courts.

Cole Pippenger of CCMS baseball

The Coffee County Middle School baseball team hit the road on Thursday as they traveled to Cookeville to take on Prescott South.  A late inning rally by the Red Raiders tied the game in the 7^th inning, only to see Prescott rally for a run in the bottom of the 7^th.  Coffee Middle lost their first game of the year 4 to 3.

The Red Raiders got a run in the 3^rd inning to take an early lead.  Prescott rallied for 2 runs in the 5^th and 1 in the 6^th to put Coffee Middle in a 3 to 1 hole entering the 7^th inning.  The Raiders rallied for 2 runs in the 7^th as they combined 3 walks and a pair of singles to tie the game at 3.  Prescott rallied in the bottom of the 7^th to push across a run and take the win.

Cole Pippenger and Hayden Garr each had a pair of singles for Coffee County.   Pippenger finished with 2 runs scored and an RBI.  Nolan Jernigan pitched 4 and a third innings striking out 3.  Jack Anderson came on in the 4^th inning and took the hard luck loss on the mound.

The Red Raiders return home on Friday night for a rematch with Prescott.  Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast as Johnathan Oliver will have the play by play action as part of the Gilley Crane Hometown Sports Series.  First pitch is set for 5 PM, Thunder Radio’s pregame show begins at 4:50.

Savannah Blackburn of CCMS tennis

The Coffee County Middle School tennis team traveled to Sewanee on Thursday to take on St. Andrews-Sewanee.  The Raider netters stayed red hot as both the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders each got wins.   The Lady Raiders swept the Lady Lions 7 to 0 while the Red Raiders edged the Mountain Lions 4 to 3.

In girls’ singles play, the Lady Raiders got all 5 set wins without giving up a game.  Savannah Blackburn, Claire Rondolet, Lauren Hogan, Morgan Tinsley and Stella Orames all won by set scores of 6 to 0.  In doubles, Blackburn and Rondolet won 6 to 2 while the team of Raelin Tucker and Kyra Sherrill won 6 to 2.

For the Red Raiders, they captured 3 singles wins and clinched the match in the last doubles match.  In singles, Krish Patel(6 to 4), Xander Blomquist(7 to 5) and Nolan Sussen(6 to 0) got wins for Coffee Middle.  In doubles play, the team of Liam Brown and Nolan Sussen won 6 to 4.

The Raider netters are back in action on Monday when they travel to Warren County.  The first serve is set for 4 PM.

Nashville center Ryan Johansen

They’re two points closer to another division title.

Nick Bonino tied the game with less than five minutes to play in regulation, and just when it seemed overtime would be a necessity, Ryan Johansen got a member’s bounce with 19.5 seconds left to give the Predators a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

The win gives the Preds 98 points on the season, and coupled with a Winnipeg loss in overtime on Tuesday, Nashville sits alone at the top of the Central Division with one game to go.

In the penultimate contest of the regular season for Nashville, a disappointing first period led to an inspiring final 40, and Johansen put the exclamation mark on a game the Predators had to have to keep pace in the divisional race.

“They’re proud guys, they play hard, they’ve had a lot of success and I think everybody knows what’s at stake,” Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of his team. “That 2-0 score has not worked well for us. Probably the last four or five times that it’s gone to 2-0, we haven’t been able to bail out of it. So tonight was a good response for our guys where we didn’t stop playing until the end and finally got the win late in the third.”

“Everything in our game was a little bit off in the first,” Preds forward Colton Sissons said. “Throughout the game we got better and better and in the third we were kind of just relentless all-out attack. I love to see that.”

Vancouver had a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play thanks to a pair of power-play goals from Markus Granlund and Tanner Pearson. However, it didn’t take long for Colton Sissons to get the Preds on the board in the second stanza – just 37 seconds, to be exact – and give his club life, a boost that continued into the third.

“We definitely got better as the game went along,” Johansen said. “I really liked our third period, how we stayed on the gas, and even in that last minute there we wanted to win the game.”

Nashville kept pushing in the final frame, and finally, Bonino deposited a loose puck into the cage at the 15:40 mark to send the home crowd into a frenzy. Then, in the dying seconds, Johansen tried to feed Viktor Arvidsson in front, but the puck never made it there.

Instead, Johansen’s dish deflected off the stick of a Vancouver defender desperately trying to break up the play and skirted over the goal line to give Nashville their first and only lead of the evening and a massive two points in the process.

“For us, we’ve been in a battle for this division the whole year and it comes down to a couple of games now and we are going to keep doing what we tried to get to which is a solid 60-minute effort,” Bonino said. “We watch the scoreboard tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday.”

The line of Bonino, Sissons and Austin Watson, a trio that was reunited on Tuesday night in Buffalo after finding so much success in previous outings together, connected twice on Thursday with Watson chipping in a pair of assists in his second game back from a 27-game absence.

“Austin Watson’s line looked really good,” Laviolette said. “For what he’s been through, he came back in really good shape. You could see it right away when he was on the ice… The defensive contributions, the block he had in Buffalo with 30 seconds to go where he lays his whole body in front of it. There’s a lot he brings to the table and that line becomes really effective.”

“We just try to play as responsible as we can and we have chemistry because of that,” Bonino said of his line. “We are usually always under the puck just trying to support the defense and when we do get our chances, they are never crazy highlight-reel goals; most of the time they are just going to the net. It’s easy to play with those two guys.”

The regular-season finale and Fan Appreciation Night is set for Saturday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, and the recipe is simple – win, and the Predators will win the Central Division for a second-straight season.

But before they can shift their focus to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there’s still a bit of work to be done – and the Preds can’t wait for the challenge.

“There’s no question that when you’re playing for something, it’s a better habit than when you’re not playing for something,” Laviolette said. “When you don’t play for something, as much as you can say the right things and do the right things, you can tell somebody to be desperate and then you can have somebody who’s actually desperate and it’s two different things. Our guys played like they were trying to accomplish something, and the work’s not done yet.”

Notes:

Forwards Rem Pitlick, Miikka Salomaki, Rocco Grimaldi (upper-body), Cody McLeod and Frederick Gaudreau, as well as defensemen Yannick Weber and Matt Irwin, were scratched for Nashville on Tuesday.

The final game of the 2018-19 regular season comes on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena as the Preds host the Chicago Blackhawks on Fan Appreciation Night.

Following that final contest, the NHL will announce the schedule for the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. CT. Stay tuned to NashvillePredators.com for the entire Round One schedule and more information on the postseason in Smashville.

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