As the fall sports season gets ready to crank up, Thunder Radio sports continues our series of previews for the fall prep sports teams.  Each day, we will spotlight a different team as we count down to the opening of practices and games of the upcoming season.  Today, we look at the Coffee County Central High School and Coffee County Middle School cross country teams.

Coach Nathan Wanuch begins his 2^nd year as the helm of the high school and middle school programs.  Coach Wanuch returns most of his runners from last season and has added some promising runners to both the high school and middle school teams.  Sarah Pearson and Emily St. John will highlight the biggest high school girls’ team in the program’s history.  On the boys side, Bradley Kishpaugh, Reuben Chaput, Neil Slone, Larson Meltzer and Andres Cavalie will be looked at to lead the boys team as they seek to replace 2 of their top runners from last year that were lost to graduation.

For the middle school teams, the Red Raiders will field a complete team as they have added as many as 5 newcomers this season.  Expected to lead the way are Ethan Welch, Jacob Rutledge, Ethan Beaty, Bradley Escue, Breyton Anderson and Clayton Bryant.  The girls’ team is still undermanned as summer conditioning continues.

The Raider thinclad teams will begin their season on Saturday, August 20^th at Siegel.  Coffee County will host a pair of meets this year.  The first meets will be held on September 12^th with the second one being held on September 26^th.

The Coffee County Lady Raider volleyball team and the CHS Lady Raider soccer team each opened play on Wednesday in a pair of preseason team camps.  The volleyball team had 3 games at Eagleville beginning at 8 AM.  The soccer team traveled to Lee University and opened up play on Wednesday evening with a JV/varsity doubleheader.

The Lady Raider volleyball team had a record of 1 and 2 in their trio of 3 set matches.  Coffee County fell to Riverdale 24-26, 27-25 and 13-15.  In game #2, the Lady Raiders defeated Eagleville 25-22, 22-25 & 15-13.  In the final match, Coffee County lost to Central Magnet 18-25, 26-24 & 11-15.  Coach Andrew Taylor praised the play of senior libero Tyana Fenton while acknowledging the hard work of all of his players.  Coffee County returns to Eagleville for 3 matches on Thursday.  The matches will be played at 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM & 11:00 AM.

The Lady Raider soccer team traveled to Cleveland on Wednesday to open up a team camp at Lee University.  Coffee County tangled with Chattanooga Christian in a JV/varsity doubleheader.  The JV team faced Chattanooga Christian first falling 3 to 1.  The varsity followed that up with a 3 to 1 defeat in the 2^nd game.  In spite of the 2 losses, Coach David Amado said that he saw several encouraging signs going into Thursday’s camp action.  Coffee County will scrimmage Walker Valley on Thursday evening.  The JV will play at 5:40 PM while the varsity will play at 7:50 PM.

As the early portion of the season’s second half has unfolded, the Cubs have altered the National League’s playoff picture and begun the surge many have long anticipated they would make. The defending World Series champions captured their sixth straight victory and completed a three-game sweep with Wednesday afternoon’s 8-2 win over the Braves at SunTrust Park.

“We won six in row, and we have this momentum,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I guess, synonymously, the vibe has been different. The vibe and energy has been great, and I want to see that continue.”
Addison Russell highlighted his four-hit game with a pair of RBI doubles and Mike Montgomery enjoyed the thrill of hitting his first home run while also limiting the Braves to just two hits and one run over six innings. Kris Bryant exited in the first inning with a left pinkie strain suffered while attempting to steal third base. But that was one of few lowlights experienced this week by the Cubs, who are within 2 1/2 games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central race as they prepare for this weekend’s home series against the Cardinals.
“I knew the last couple of outings that, mechanically, my timing has been a little bit off,” Montgomery said. “Today, it was trying to slow things down a little bit and getting back to commanding the ball. I think the last couple of days working in the bullpen really helped.”
R.A. Dickey surrendered solo shots to Montgomery and Tommy La Stella en route to allowing four earned runs over seven innings. The knuckleballer had gone 37 consecutive innings without allowing a homer, and he entered this outing having allowed just three runs over his past 27 innings at home. His performance added to the frustration felt this week by the Braves, who had entered this series in the thick of the NL Wild Card race and feeling good about having just swept the D-backs.
“You know [the Cubs] are a team that’s not going to stay dormant all year,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “They’re too good. They were on a good run, just like we had been. It’s just one of those series where we’ve got to regroup and get after them tomorrow.”
Montgomery kept the Braves hitless until Danny Santana doubled with one out in the fifth and scoreless until Ender Inciarte opened the bottom of the sixth with his eighth homer. But the Cubs southpaw’s fondest memory of this game will come courtesy of the two-out, fifth-inning homer he hit into the second deck of the Chop House restaurant located in right field. The home run traveled a projected 393 feet per Statcast™.
“That’s the first time in my career a pitcher has swung at a 2-0 pitch with nobody on after the first [batters] got out on three pitches,” Dickey said. “Normally, the pitcher is going to take, especially when he doesn’t have a hit all year. He ambushed me there, and I’ve got to tip my hat. I laid it in there, thinking he wasn’t going to swing, and he put a good swing on it.”
After exiting in the fifth inning because he was feeling ill and dehydrated, Freddie Freeman was replaced by Matt Adams, who notched one of the three singles Koji Uehara allowed before exiting in the eighth with the bases loaded. Pedro Strop halted a potential Braves rally when he needed just two pitches to get Matt Kemp to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“He has been a linchpin in a lot of really good moments for us, and that is a tough spot to come into, as Kemp has been swinging the bat well,” Maddon said. “I am looking for him to get through Kemp and Flowers right there.”
Mike Foltynewicz will be on the mound when Atlanta opens a four-game series at Dodger Stadium Thursday at 9:10 p.m. CT on MLB.TV. Foltynewicz will be pitching in California for the first time since carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning of his June 30 start in Oakland.

The Nashville Sounds got huge home runs from Matt Olson and Ryan Lavarnway in a come-from-behind 11-8 win over the Iowa Cubs Wednesday afternoon at Principal Park.

Olson hit a two-out grand slam to cap a six-run eighth inning, and Lavarnway launched a two-out, go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the 11th to give the Sounds a lead they held on to.

Right-handed pitchers Kendall Graveman, Jharel Cotton, and Chris Bassitt all appeared for the Sounds as part of rehab assignments with Oakland. Graveman started and allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings. Cotton allowed four runs in 3 1/3 innings while neither factored into the decision.

Iowa built a 7-1 lead after five innings with two in the first, two in the third, and three in the fifth. Stephen Bruno launched a three-run homer off of Cotton in the fifth to give the Cubs a comfortable six-run lead.

The comeback bid started in the sixth when Lavarnway knocked in Nashville’s second run of the night with a sacrifice fly. The Cubs got the run right back in the seventh to extend the lead to 8-2.

Nashville’s six-run eighth inning started with a Joey Wendle infield single off Pierce Johnson. After Lavarnway was retired on a fly out, Matt McBride was hit by a pitch that ended Johnson’s night.

Matt Carasiti relieved Johnson and struck out Kenny Wilson for the second out in the inning. With two on and two out, Jaff Decker singled in a run to make it 8-3. Melvin Mercedes followed with another run-scoring knock with a hit up the middle to cut the deficit to 8-4.

Franklin Barreto drew a walk to load the bases for Olson who drilled an opposite field grand slam to pull the Sounds even at 8-8. It was Olson’s 19th homer with Nashville and 23rd overall in 2017.

The designated hitter also drew four walks to tie a Nashville Sounds franchise record for most walks in a single game.

Bassitt did his part with a successful rehab outing. The righty went 1 2/3 scoreless innings before giving way to Lou Trivino who did the same over three frames.

The game stayed 8-8 until Lavarnway’s two-out blast in the 11th. It was his fifth home run of the season and first since May 19th.

The series finale is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at Principal Park. Right-hander Jesse Hahn (0-0, 4.50) starts for the Sounds while the Cubs have yet to announce a starter. First pitch is scheduled for 12:08 p.m.