A marathon weekend saw the Coffee County Middle School softball team claim a 3^rd place finish in the CTC softball tournament.  Entering the tournament as the host team and the #3 seed, it was a pair of losses to 2^nd seeded Warren County that ended the year for the Lady Raiders.  Coffee County finished the tournament with a record of 3 and 2.

On Friday night, Coffee County got a 3 to 0 over Tullahoma to open up the tournament action.  Kiya Ferrell had a triple, a double and scored twice to lead the Coffee County hitting attack.  Katie Crosslin got the win in the circle for the Lady Raiders.

On Saturday morning, the Lady Raiders got a pair of runs in the 1^st inning but it was not enough to stop Warren County.  The Lady Pioneers broke a 3 to 3 tie in the 4^th with a pair of runs to win 5 to 3.  Kaitlyn Davis had a pair of singles and scored a run to lead the Coffee Middle hitting attack.  Ferrell finished with a double and a single.

In game #3, Coffee Middle used a 5 run 3^rd inning to blow past Harris 15 to 1.  Aly Harris, Davis and Ferrell all finished with 2 hits.  Ferrell added a walk and scored 3 times.  Hannah Richardson got the win in the circle.

Squaring off against White County in game #4, Coffee County got a home run, a double and a single to pave their trip to the semifinals with a 6 to 2 win.  Honey Barnes had a triple and a single in her 2 plate appearances for Coffee County.

In the semifinals, the Lady Raiders ran out of gas falling to Warren County 8 to 2.  The Lady Pioneers sent 12 batters to the plate in the 1^st inning as they built an 8 to 0 lead.  Barnes led off the 3^rd inning with a walk and Olivia Evans drove her home with an RBI single.  Evans scored Coffee County’s 2^nd run of the game.   Coffee Middle finished the year with a record of 10 and 7.

Hosting their annual Coffee County Classic softball tournament on Friday and Saturday, the Coffee County Lady Raider softball team suffered through some inconsistencies going 1 and 2 on the tournament.  Playing 3 games on Saturday, Coffee County suffered losses to state tournament favorites Baylor and Forrest before defeating Culleoka in the final game of the day.

Opening up against defending state champion Baylor, the Lady Raiders fell behind 6 to nothing after 3 innings.  Katie Rutledge took the 11 to 4 loss in the circle but led Coffee County in hitting with a double and 2 singles while driving home 2 runs.  Raven Rogers had a pair of hits and Ashley Evans had an RBI double.

In the noon game that you heard here on Thunder Radio Forrest closed out the game 10 unanswered runs to claim an 11 to 1 win.  The Lady Raiders were held to 3 hits as 3 costly errors hurt Coffee County.  Rogers led Coffee County in hitting as she had a pair of singles to earn the Crazy Daisies player of the game award.

In the day’s finale, a mad and hungry Lady Raider team roared out to an 8 to 0 lead to coast home with a 12 to 2 win.  Coffee County banged out 15 hits in the game as they scored in every inning.  Haley Richardson got the win in the circle for the Lady Raiders.  Offensively, Evans had hits to lead the way.  Jayden Scheller and Erin Ferrell each finished with 3 hits while Abigail Parker had a double, a single and 2 RBI.

Coffee County will close out the regular season on Monday and Tuesday with a pair of district games.  The Lady Raiders will take on Lincoln County on Monday in Fayetteville.  That game will get underway at 6:30 PM.  Coffee County will play their final regular season home game on Tuesday when they host Tullahoma at Terry Floyd Field at 6 PM.  The district tournament will begin later in the week at Lincoln County.  Thunder Radio will keep you updated on the Lady Raiders game times as they are announced.

A pair of losses on Friday and Saturday in the Duck River Valley Conference tournament ended the season for the Westwood softball team on Saturday.  With their best record in recent memory, the Lady Rockets claimed a regular season division title while compiling a record of 11-4-1.

In Friday’s 2^nd round matchup with Fayetteville, an 9 to 5 lead after 3 innings was not enough as the Tigers roared back with 5 unanswered runs to claim the 10 to 9 win.  Six Westwood errors led to 7 unearned runs for Fayetteville.  Brookelyn Blake, Paisley Campbell, Abby Clark and Brayden Gray all banged out doubles to lead the 10 hit Lady Rocket hitting attack.  Campbell finished with 3 RBI.

On Saturday, 8 Westwood errors allowed 7 unearned runs for Community as the Lady Rockets fell 8 to 2.  Blake had a pair of singles and an RBI for Westwood.  Haidyn Campbell finished with a double, a stolen base and took the bitter loss in the circle for Westwood.  The 8^th grader had 8 strikeouts while only walking one.

Five boats from the Coffee County Youth Bass Club traveled to Dayton, TN on Saturday to take part in the Battle of Chickamauga.  The Battle of Chickamauga is a state trail tournament event fishing out of Dayton on Chickamauga Lake.

The brother tandem of Colby Thurmond & Braeden Thurmond were the top finishers for Coffee County as they caught 4 fish weighing 10.14 pounds to finish in 30^th place.  Brothers Brandon and Dawson Wells finished in 47^th place with 4 fish totaling 7.55 pounds.  Hunter Sanders and Blake Mangrum were 49^th with 3 fish totaling 7.56 pounds and a top fish of 4 .59 pounds.  Isaac Turner and Cam Rutledge finished in 87^th place and Adam Petty and Joe White came in 127^th place.

The Coffee County anglers return to the water on Friday and Saturday for the State Trail Championship.  The fishing will take place on Old Hickory Lake.

The Coffee County Claybusters traveled to East Tennessee on Saturday for their biggest shoot of the year thus far.  Battling against more than 200 shooters in White Pine, TN, the Claybusters once again were the class of the field as they captured 5 of the 6 high overall shooters and a team title in the varsity team competition.

The Varsity team of Hayden Jacobs, Tucker Carlton, Colter Smith, Zack Bonee and Austin Schaller won the varsity competition as they shot 477 of a possible 500 targets.  As individuals, Coffee County won both the high overall shooter for both male and female as Hayden Jacobs and Victoria Majors earned those titles respectively.  Owing to the Claybusters dominance, each had to win their title with a “scorecard playoff” over a fellow Claybuster teammate.  Jacobs edged Zack Boneewith both shooting 98 targets.  For the ladies, Majors scraped by Lindsey Dickson as each shot 95.   In the Junior varsity division, Tucker Carlton broke 96 targets to earn the male title while Alexus Stacey won the JV girls’ title with 92.  In the intermediate advanced division, Emma Mathews won the female high overall title with 90 broken clays.

The Claybusters return to the firing line on Saturday, May 12^th at Big Springs.  That shoot will take place around 9 AM at the Christiana range.

Opening play in the Duck River Valley Conference baseball tournament on Friday, the Westwood Rockets traveled to Murfreesboro to take on Middle Tennessee Christian.  Tied at 3 entering the bottom of the 7^th, the home standing Cougars pushed across the winning run to drop the Rockets 4 to 3.

Westwood jumped out to an early lead as they scored twice in the first inning.  Hits by Brady Nugent and Blake Hale got them on base as they came around to score to make it 2 to 0.  The Rockets added a run in the 7^th to on an RBI hit from Hale.  MTCS scored once in the 1^st inning and took a brief lead in the 5^th inning after a pair of walks helped plate 2 more runs.  The Cougars dropped Westwood with the heartbreaking walk off in the 7^th.

With the loss, Westwood falls into the loser’s bracket where they will resume play on Monday.  At press time, Westwood’s time and opponent were not available at press time.  The Rocket’s game will be played at Liberty Middle School in Shelbyville.

The 100th Stanley Cup Playoff game in Predators’ history has a reason to be remembered.

Kevin Fiala scored the winner in double overtime and the Nashville Predators defeated the Winnipeg Jets by a 5-4 final in Game 2 on Sunday night to even the series at one game apiece. It’s Nashville’s seventh postseason overtime win in club history, their third in multiple overtimes.

A goal just 27 seconds into the contest was the perfect start for the Preds, and Fiala’s tally at 5:37 of double OT ensured this series will need at least five games as things shift to Winnipeg.

“If you weren’t from Nashville or Winnipeg, you had to like that,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said, referring to the stress-inducing nature of the back-and-forth game.

“Resilient,” Preds center Ryan Johansen simply stated. “We’ve been like that since we’ve been put together as a team. That’s hockey for you, the ups and downs and adversity. You have to fight through and all that matters is we won tonight and the series is 1-1.”

It took Johansen just 27 seconds into the contest to give the Predators their first lead of the series when he fired a shot from the slot to beat Connor Hellebuyck top shelf. Winnipeg responded before the period was out with two quick goals from Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Scheifele to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

But five minutes into the middle frame, on the power play, P.K. Subban blasted home his first of the postseason to even the contest at two, and then with less than two minutes to play in the period, Viktor Arvidsson’s slapper from the right side beat Hellebuyck to give Nashville the advantage after 40 minutes.

Brandon Tanev tied the game five minutes into the third, but then Johansen went around Toby Enstrom and roofed a shot for his second of the game just 34 seconds later to give Nashville the lead once more. With 1:05 to play in regulation, Scheifele recorded his second of the night, this time with the extra attacker, to send the Preds to overtime for the first time in the 2018 postseason.

After the first OT solved nothing, Craig Smith found Fiala, who made his move and backhanded a shot into the twine to send the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.

Already down 1-0 in the series, giving up a tying goal late in regulation to force overtime could have been demoralizing for some. It seemed to be the exact opposite on Sunday night in Nashville.

“This group’s been together for a while,” Laviolette said. “We’ve added a few pieces to it, but playoff series I think do that. Winning, losing, overtime wins, overtime losses, I think all of that builds a little bit to your group. It was tough in the third because I don’t think we were at our best. I thought that was [the Jets’] best that we had seen and they were able to tie the game. With that comes one of those momentum swings. Coming out from the overtime, I think we handled it pretty well.”

Now it’s off to Winnipeg for Games 3 and 4 and into a building with an atmosphere that rivals Bridgestone Arena – not to mention the hosts, who owned the League’s best home record this season. However, bet you can guess who had the top road record.

Two games in, this series is far from over. Best of five, commence.

“We just kept going,” Subban said. “This is really good for us, this type of adversity early on in a series is great for us and we found a way to win and now we’ve got to go on the road and do what we’ve done well all year and that’s win. For us right now we’ve just got to get some rest and get some good food, some good eats, like I said some good rest and get ready for the toughest road trip of the year.”

JOFA Line Jubilance:

Filip Forsberg was dishing on Sunday. Ryan Johansen was scoring. And Viktor Arvidsson was doing it all. Again.

Forsberg’s three assists in Game 2 marked the second-highest total from a Preds player in a single playoff game, Johansen’s two goals marked his first-career multi-goal postseason contest, and Arvidsson notched his first three-point playoff outing.

Other than that, nothing special.

“Those two are unbelievable,” Johansen said of Forsberg and Arvidsson. “We could talk about those guys for days, but as a line we need to step up our game and take it to another level. I feel like we did our thing tonight, supported each other and worked for each other and found a way to produce too.”

“I thought we played good,” Forsberg said. “We want to be out there to make a difference. Joey (Ryan Johansen) and Arvi (Viktor Arvidsson) played an unbelievable game and I’m just trying to keep up and good as I can.”

So humble, right?

It’s clear how much Forsberg, Johansen and Arvidsson all contributed in Game 2, and if it weren’t for them, Nashville wouldn’t have even had a sniff at overtime. But when the trio is clicking, there’s no telling what’s next.

“We worked hard,” Arvidsson said. “We just supported each other and played in the O-zone a lot I feel like that was a big part. We got the pucks deep, played a simple game and just put pucks in the net and that’s when we’re good.”

Simple as that.

Winner, Winner:

He’s already played the role of Stanley Cup Playoff overtime hero once in his career.

Kevin Fiala’s encore was just as impressive, and few before him have ever done so. In fact, Fiala became one of just nine players in NHL history to have multiple game-winning goals in the postseason before turning 22.

Fiala is also the first Preds player to record multiple overtime goals in club history.

All of a sudden, Fiala has goals in consecutive games and is noticeable just about every time he steps on the ice, a very good sign. And it’s not just Fiala, but his entire line with Kyle Turris and Craig Smith, who have been making a difference through the first two games of this series.

“One series to the next for a line, I believe, is a new opportunity,” Laviolette said. “You have to go out and you have make your way and help contribute for the team. Sometimes when you close the door on one team and you open up another one, it’s almost like a fresh season and a fresh start so we had some of those conversations and they’ve been able to chip in a couple of big goals.”

Notes:

Ryan Hartman entered the Preds lineup for the first time in this series, taking the place of Miikka Salomaki on the Nashville fourth line.

The Predators are now 7-8 all-time in postseason overtime and 3-3 in games that require multiple overtimes.

Nashville has now won five of their last six playoff overtime games.

Pekka Rinne made 46 saves on 50 shots, his highest career save total in a playoff game.

Game 2 marked Nashville’s 100th Stanley Cup Playoff game in franchise history with Head Coach Peter Laviolette behind the bench for 50 of them.

The series now shifts to Winnipeg for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, before Game 5 comes back in Nashville on Saturday night.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report