Coffee County’s Benjamin Reid was selected last week as a member of the 2nd team of the Tennessean All-Midstate soccer team. Benjamin, a rising senior, was selected as a defender. Reid and Lincoln County’s James Fee were the only District 8AAA players selected for the team as Fee was also listed as a 2nd team defender.
Reid, a 3 year starter for Coffee County, served as the only junior captain for this year’s District 8AAA regular season champion Red Raider squad. Reid was selected as the District 8AAA Defensive Player of the Year and a member of the All-District team for the 3rd year in a row. Earlier in June, Reid was selected by the readers of the Tennessean as the YMCA Good Sportsmanship Award winner. Reid was one of only 4 juniors selected to the 1st or 2nd team.
Reid will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to talk about his award filled summer. The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast live each Saturday morning from 10 to 11 AM from the showroom of Al White Ford/Lincoln. The Coffee Coaches Show is heard exclusively on Thunder Radio at 107.9 FM and AM 1320. It can also be heard online at www.WMSRradio.com

Manuel Margot was two years old when Bartolo Colon first set foot on a big league mound in April 1997. The Padres center fielder was the spark plug behind Colon’s demise on Wednesday night.

Margot ignited a trio of two-run rallies as the Padres made their early cushion hold up in a 7-4 victory that snapped their nine-game losing streak against Atlanta. In his second game since returning from the disabled list, Margot walked in the first and singled in the third and fourth, scoring three times and adding a pair of stolen bases. Carlos Asuaje and Erick Aybar also chipped in three hits apiece, as the Padres built an early 6-0 lead on the strength of five two-out RBIs.
“We had continuous momentum going in and out of innings,” Asuaje said. “We had good plays on defense, good pitching, and offensively we were stringing at-bats together well tonight. It felt like we were dominating, even though it was a closer game.”
Those three rallies were enough to chase Colon after four innings, as he allowed at least six runs for the fourth consecutive start. In that time, Colon’s ERA has skyrocketed to 8.14, the highest in baseball, leaving his future with the Braves in question.
“He had pretty good command overall,” Braves catcher Tyler Flowers said. “He had a couple of untimely misses. There really weren’t too many at-em balls. They found the holes.”
On the flip side, the Padres feel as though Luis Perdomo has a very bright future. But the 24-year-old right-hander is still experiencing some growing pains when he’s working through the order a third time. Perdomo pitched five scoreless frames and retired a batter in the sixth — before allowing five straight hits and four runs once the lineup turned over again.
“You hate to see a guy that’s throwing the ball that well, that efficiently run into that much trouble that quickly,” said Padres manager Andy Green. “Because for 5 1/3, he was absolutely cruising.”
After Perdomo’s sixth-inning struggles, the Padres called on rookie right-hander Phil Maton with the tying run at the plate and the bases loaded. He plunked Flowers in the left forearm (and Flowers exited as a result). But Maton retired the next two hitters to escape the threat, punctuating the inning with a strikeout of Johan Camargo. He became the 13th Padres pitcher to open his career with nine straight scoreless outings. (The franchise record is 12 straight, set most recently by Ernesto Frieri.)
Ryan Buchter, Brad Hand and Brandon Maurer followed Maton by retiring all nine hitters they faced, ending the game without a hint of a late Braves rally.
“Outside of [the hit-by-pitch], Maton was great,” Green said. “Buchter, Hand, Maurer were lights out tonight. That was a very efficient job by the three of them.”
Streaking Spangenberg: The Padres drew two walks in the top of the first inning, and Cory Spangenberg made certain Colon would pay. He smacked a liner out of the reach of Matt Kemp into the left-field corner. Both runs scored, giving the Padres an early advantage. In 21 games this month, Spangenberg is batting .314 with six extra-base hits.
Spangenberg’s double came immediately after plate umpire Mike Winters ruled Hunter Renfroe checked his swing on a 3-2 pitch that could have resulted in Colon’s third strikeout in what would have been a scoreless first inning.
“I thought he went to be honest,” Colon said. “But you can’t focus on that and the reality is I’ve been getting hit hard. That’s the truth and you can’t just dance around it.”
Jaime Garcia will start the finale of this three-games set, which is scheduled to start Thursday at 8:05 p.m. CT. Garcia allowed four earned runs or fewer in his first 12 starts, but he has been charged with six earned runs in each of his past two outings. .

The Nashville Sounds used an eight-run fourth inning and outlasted the Round Rock Express in an 11-9 win in front of 8,408 fans at First Tennessee Park Wednesday night.

The offense was out in full force for both teams as the Sounds (38-40) collected 16 hits while Round Rock had 13 of their own. The teams added 10 walks in the 3-hour, 30-minute contest.

Round Rock raced out to a 5-0 lead with one in the second, three in the third, and another single tally in the top of the fourth. Nashville starter Frankie Montas was charged with four runs in three innings.

The comeback for Nashville started in the fourth with the biggest offensive inning of the season. The team sent 12 to the plate and at one point had nine consecutive batters reach safely.

Run-scoring hits in the frame came on Mark Canha’s RBI single, Beau Taylor’s two-run base hit, Melvin Mercedes’ RBI knock, Yairo Muñoz’s bases-clearing double, and Joey Wendle’s RBI single up the middle.

When the damage was done, the final tally was eight runs on seven hits and two walks. Round Rock starter James Dykstra was charged with all eight runs.

Round Rock didn’t go away quietly as Drew Stubbs’ RBI single and Drew Robinson’s sacrifice fly made it a one-run game in the fifth.

Sounds third baseman Renato Nuñez pushed the lead up to 11-7 when he hit a towering three-run homer down the left field line. The blast was Nuñez’s Minor League Baseball-leading 21st of the season.

Stubbs was at it again in the seventh when he drew the Express within a pair of runs with a two-run double to make it 11-9.

The combination of Felix Doubront and Tucker Healy shut it down the rest of the way for Nashville. The relievers worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings to end it.

Six different players had multi-hit games for the Sounds, led by Wendle’s three and Beau Taylor’s three in his Triple-A debut.

The four-game series concludes Thursday night as the Sounds become the Honky Tonks and the Express become the Dance Halls. Right-hander Zach Neal (1-3, 3.47) starts for Nashville against right-hander Clayton Blackburn (1-0, 5.40) for Round Rock. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Former Coffee County Lady Raider Tori Bell will continue her high school softball career for one last night tonight.  Bell was selected for the Tennessee/Kentucky All Star Game to be held beginning at 1 PM Wednesday at Friendship Christian School in Lebanon.  The Tennessee-Kentucky All Star series will be a best of 3 competition between All-Stars from across each state.  The inaugural Kentucky/Tennessee Games were played on June 28, 2006.  Kentucky holds a 6 to 5 lead in the series after winning in 2016.

Bell qualified on June 13^th with her performance in the Tennessee All-Star Classic.  Playing for the Middle Tennessee All-Star squad, Bell helped lead the Middle squad to a win and a loss in the round-robin event.  Bell had 2 singles, a double and a home run in the 2 games on 6 plate appearances.

Bell also won the annual Home Run Derby as she hit 9 home runs, easily outdistancing the 4 home runs hit by her closest competitor.  Bell led Coffee County in home runs this season and has signed to play her college softball at Chattanooga State.  Start time for Game #1 is set for 1 PM Wednesday at Friendship Christian School located at 5400 Coles Ferry Pike in Lebanon. Introduction of players starts at 12:40.