Konor Heaton of Westwood football

The Westwood football team hosted the first home game of the season on Thursday night at Dyer-Bouldin Field.  In a game you heard on Thunder Radio, a strong 2^nd half by Cascade nullified a fast start by Westwood as the Champions claimed a 32 to 20 win in the conference tilt.

Westwood got off to an explosive start as Trenton Thompson scored on a 66 yard touchdown run on the first play of scrimmage and added the 2 point conversion to make it 8 to 0 with only 10 seconds elapsed in the game.  Cascade scored a pair of touchdowns before Westwood answered with 2:18 left in the half to take a 14 to 12 lead on a 5 yard touchdown run from Blake Hale.  Cascade rallied to get their 3^rd touchdown with 59 seconds to go in the half to take a 20 to 14 lead into the halftime break.  Cascade stretched the lead to 26 to 14 on a 60 yard run to open the second half and never trailed again.  Will Partin added a touchdown on a quarterback keeper with 5:52 left in the game for Westwood.

Thompson went down with an injury in the first quarter and finished with 87 yards rushing on 4 carries.  Konor Heaton rushed 9 times for 63 yards and caught a pair of passes for 24 yards.  Hale finished with 18 yards on 7 carries and Connor Smith rushed 8 times for 28 yards.  The Rockets hit the road again on Thursday when they travel to Bedford County to take on Liberty.  That rivalry game is set to kick off at 6:30 PM.

You can download a copy of the broadcast at: http://www.thunder1320.com/downloads/

Keelie Hillis of CHS volleyball

The Coffee County CHS volleyball team traveled to McMinnville on Thursday night for their first road test of the season.  Coming off an inconsistent performance against Shelbyville on Tuesday night, the young Lady Raider squad had no answers for the talented Lady Pioneers getting swept in 3 sets.  Coffee County lost by set scores of 12-25, 10-25 and 6-25.

Coffee County was held to 6 kills and 3 aces as they could not get their offense going.  Keelie Hillis led Coffee County in blocks with 3 and kills with 2.  Alliyah Williams and Amanda Mukai tied for the team lead in digs with 5.  Mukai also added 5 assists as Coffee County falls to 1 and 2 on the season.

The Lady Raiders are back in action on Monday when they host Warren County and Grundy County in a doubleheader.  The match against Warren County will begin at 4:30 PM.  The Lady Raiders will then take on Grundy County at 6:30.  Both matches will be held at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.

Katie Cotten of CCMS Soccer

The Coffee County Middle School soccer team opened their season on Thursday night in McMinnville as they took on the Lady Pioneers of Warren County Middle School.  Warren County scored a goal in each half to drop the Lady Raiders by a final score of 2 to 1.

Warren County scored first in the 15^th minute and took that 1 to 0 lead into the half.  Coffee County’s Katie Cotten knotted the game at 1 in the 36^th minute.  With 2 and a half minutes left, Warren County tallied the game winner.

The Lady Raiders will return home on Monday, August 28^th when they host their home opener against North Franklin.  That match will kick off at 5 PM.

The Coffee County Middle School football team traveled to Cleveland on Thursday night for a non-conference game with Lake Forest Middle School.   Despite a pair of big plays by the Red Raiders, Coffee County could not overcome a scoring blitz by the Cleveland squad in the 2^nd quarter as they built a 32 to 6 lead.  The Raiders fell by a final score of 53 to 14.

After spotting Lake Forest an 8 to 0 lead early in the 2^nd quarter, Ethan Baker returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards but was denied the 2 point conversion to make the score 8 to 6.  From that point, the home standing Bruins rolled up 3 touchdowns in the final 6 minutes of the half to take a commanding lead into the half.  Kelby Walker added the 2^nd Raider touchdown as he scored from 55 yards out on a swing pass from quarterback Conner Shemwell in the second half.

The Red Raiders return home on Thursday night when they welcome Rhea County Middle School to Carden-Jarrell Field.  That non-conference game is set to kick off at 5 PM.  Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast of that game as part of the First National Bank Hometown Sports Series.  Our broadcast begins with the pregame show at 4:50.

Ender Inciarte homered twice and the Braves launched four solo shots off Rockies rookie starter Jeff Hoffman in a 10-4 victory on Thursday at Coors Field. The result pushed the Rockies into a tie with the D-backs for the top National League Wild Card spot.

Inciarte has hits in 19 of his last 20 games but hadn’t homered since July 19 before going deep to lead off the third and fifth innings. He improved his homer total to 10 — one more than his combined total of the previous two years — and helped the Braves earn a split of the four-game set. Tyler Flowers opened the second with his 10th homer, and Freddie Freeman added his 22nd homer to chase Hoffman after 4 1/3 innings.
The power barrage provided all the necessary support for Braves rookie starter Lucas Sims (1-3), who allowed two runs over five innings to record his first career win in what was his first start at Coors Field — an offense-friendly stadium. His effort helped the Braves quickly distance themselves from Wednesday night’s 17-2 loss.
“To bounce back the way that we did and put up all of those runs shows a lot of resiliency,” Sims said. “It makes for a little bit better of a flight home.”
Hoffman (6-5) gave up two other hits, both for extra bases — Ozzie Albies’ second-inning triple and Freeman’s fourth-inning double. After averaging 94.5 mph on his four-seam fastball before Thursday, Hoffman — who admitted feeling “under the weather” — saw his velocity drop to a 92.1 clip in the game, with the first three home runs allowed coming on fastballs. Freeman’s homer, on a curve, was by far his longest this year at 439 feet.
“I’ve been through stretches like this, whether it’s this year or in the past,” said Hoffman, who has yielded eight runs in nine innings over his last two starts. “I’ve been through worse than this. You’ve just gotta tell yourself to forget about it and take the positives away from it, whatever positives you can find, and go out there next time out and try to get the job done.”
The Rockies, who saw Ryan McMahon — their No. 3 prospect according to MLBPipeline.com — earn his first RBI on a second-inning double, also saw third baseman and National League MVP Award candidate Nolan Arenado leave the game with an apparent re-injury to his left hand. A hard, seventh-inning shot by Lane Adams hit the bottom of the hand — on or near the spot where he suffered a bone bruise when hit by a pitch in Miami on Sunday.
“The trainer told me, ‘I can’t believe it hit that spot,'” Arenado said. “I was thinking the same thing, ‘Man, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ That’s the way it goes. That’s baseball. Just something I have to deal with.”
After the Rockies grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second, Inciarte crushed a 1-1 Hoffman pitch 434 feet into the upper deck in right field. It stands as the longest home run the Braves’ center fielder has hit since Statcast™ tracking began in 2015. His fifth-inning homer traveled a projected 429 feet, making it his second-longest homer within that span.
Inciarte became just the second player in MLB history with two homers, two stolen bases and two walks in a game, joining the Mets’ Howard Johnson, who did it July 11, 1987. He also became the first Braves player with two homers and two stolen bases in a game since Rafael Furcal did so on April 15, 2005.
“I was just trying to hit the ball hard today,” Inciarte said. “I got good pitches to hit and took advantage of them. The ball carries here pretty well. So, I got the help of the stadium and had a good game today.” More >
Sims passes the test: In his fourth Major League start, Sims (1-3) dealt with traffic in the first two innings and yielded two runs in the second. But with two on and no outs in the fifth, he quieted the Rockies on a Jonathan Lucroy grounder, a strikeout of Trevor Story on a 2-2 fastball and a harmless McMahon grounder. Sims pitched around five hits and three walks to hold the Rockies to two runs.
The Braves entered Thursday with two homers over their past eight games at Coors Field and exited with their fifth four-homer game of the season. They hit at least four home runs just once in both 2015 and ’16.
Charlie Blackmon hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, matching his runs-scored total (111) from last season in the Rockies’ 121st game.
R.A. Dickey will take the mound at SunTrust Park when Atlanta opens a three-game series against Cincinnati Friday at 6:35 p.m. CT. Dickey has allowed one earned run or less in seven of his past 10 starts. .

Four-hit games from Franklin Barreto and Mark Canha helped the Nashville Sounds out-slug the Memphis Redbirds in an 11-8 win at AutoZone Park Thursday night.
The pair combined to drive in seven runs and score five. Barreto finished a double shy of the cycle while Canha had a pair of doubles among his four knocks.
Nashville never trailed as they jumped out to an early lead and built on it throughout the night. Barreto’s big game started in the third when he singled to right-center. He came around to score the game’s first run on Josh Phegley’s sacrifice fly.
Memphis evened the game at 1-1 before the Sounds plated three in the fifth, two in the sixth, and another three runs in the seventh. Canha and Barreto started the rally in the fifth with a single and run-scoring triple.
Two walks came back to hurt the Redbirds when Joey Wendle’s two-run single scored both free passes to make it a 4-1 game. The first four batters reached base in the sixth, including consecutive singles from Canha and Barreto to drive the score up to 6-1.
The duo was at it again in the seventh when Canha drove in Beau Taylor with his first double of the game. Barreto followed with a two-run blast to left-center to give the Sounds a 9-2 lead. It was Barreto’s 14th home run of the season with Nashville.
Daniel Gossett was solid on the mound for the Sounds. The right-hander tossed six innings and allowed two runs on eight hits. He walked one and struck out six in his fourth win of the season.
Memphis made it interesting when Gossett exited. Breyvic Valera drilled a solo homer off Kyle Finnegan to start the bottom of the seventh to make it a 9-3 game. After two more hits and a costly error committed by Renato Nunez, Redbirds shortstop Wilfredo Tovar drilled a grand slam to pull Memphis within two runs at 9-7.
‘Birds first baseman Rangel Ravelo’s RBI triple cut the game to 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth, but that’s as close as Memphis would get.
Canha delivered the knockout punch with a two-run double in the top of the ninth inning. Right-hander Lou Trivino worked around a leadoff single by Aledmys Diaz to notch his second save with a scoreless ninth.
Canha and Barreto accounted for half of the Sounds’ 16 hits. Beau Taylor added three hits and three runs while Jaff Decker had a single and a double.
The series finale is scheduled for Friday night at AutoZone Park in Memphis. Right-hander Chris Jensen (5-1, 5.13) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Matt Pearce (3-1, 4.80) for the Redbirds. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.