Katie Rutledge

Coffee County’s Katie Rutledge earned her 3^rd major post season honor on Tuesday as she was selected for the 1^st team of the Tennessean All-MidState team.  Rutledge, who just completed her sophomore year, has also been named tabbed to the 1^st team All-State team by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and a 1^st team member of the Tennessee Softball Coaches Association All-State team.  Rutledge was named the District 8AAA Most Valuable Player in May and a member of the District 8AAA 1^st team All-District selection.

Rutledge, who played primarily played centerfield and pitched, batted .506 for the year with 8 doubles, 3 triples, a home run and 18 RBI.

(Story by Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com)

The Titans have agreed to terms with veteran receiver Eric Decker on a one-year deal.
Decker (6-3, 214) adds another proven receiver to a group loaded with potential.

Decker, 30, spent the past three seasons with New York Jets before being released. He paid a free agency visit to the Titans on Wednesday, and watched a portion of practice with general manager Jon Robinson and coach Mike Mularkey.

A third-round pick of the Denver Broncos in the 2010 NFL Draft, Decker has 385 career receptions for 5,253 receiving yards and 52 touchdowns in seven seasons. He has three 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his career, including a 1,288-yard season in 2013. He’s also turned in 12 100-yard performances.

Decker spent his first four seasons with the Broncos before joining the Jets in 2014. Decker led the Jets with 74 receptions for 962 yards and five touchdowns in 2014. In 2015, Decker had 80 receptions for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Decker was limited to three games last season. He was placed on injured reserve on October 12 before undergoing hip and shoulder surgeries. Decker returned to the team’s offseason program, however, as a full participant.

Since 2012, Decker’s 43 receiving touchdowns rank fifth in the NFL and his 4,535 receiving yards rank 18th. His 33 red zone touchdown receptions are the second-highest total in the NFL over that time period. Between 2012 and 2015, Decker averaged 82 receptions for 1,085 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“We brought him in, and I talked to him this morning for about 25 minutes,” Mularkey said of Decker last week. “I got a chance to meet him; I’d never met him. It’s similar to a draft (visit), when you do the top-30 visits, it’s a similar situation. You get a chance to meet them and do a physical.

“The whole visit was to get to know him, and make sure he is healthy.”

The Titans clearly liked what they saw, and heard.

Quarterback Marcus Mariota was asked about Decker last week after practice.

“For me, you can’t really comment on those things because he is not a part of our team,” Mariota said. “So until he is, and all means I wish him the best. But I am happy with the guys we have now and the guys who are working. We’ll see where that goes.”

Decker joins a group that already includes veteran Rishard Matthews, who led the team in receptions and receiving yards last season. The Titans drafted Corey Davis with the fifth overall pick of the draft, and also selected Taywan Taylor in the third round.

Tajae Sharpe, who is recovering from foot surgery, also returns, along with Harry Douglas, Tre McBride and others.

The Titans are scheduled to begin training camp on July 29. For the 19th consecutive year, Thunder Radio will be the radio home in Coffee County for the Titans Radio Network.

Julio Teheran was cruising toward his finest start of the season before Austin Slater drilled an eighth-inning, three-run homer that rewarded Matt Moore’s strong effort and allowed the Giants to snap a seven-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over the Braves Tuesday night at SunTrust Park.

“It’s big to get out there, keep plugging away and playing good baseball,” Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said. “It feels good to get rewarded for all the hard work and see Matt [Moore] and the bullpen pitch so well. It is a feel-good day.”
Slater jumped on a first-pitch fastball that found too much of the plate and lined an opposite-field shot that sneaked over right field’s tall wall. Teheran had allowed just three hits before the Braves committed three errors during a five-run eighth inning that accounted for the first runs San Francisco tallied through the first two games of this series. Denard Span’s RBI single off Ian Krol proved to be the decisive blow during the frame.
“The kid bailed us out,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “For seven innings, it was quiet. Their guy was throwing the ball very well, and we couldn’t mount anything against him. We got a couple of breaks with the ground attack, and Slater bailed us out.”
Coming off a start in which he allowed a season-high eight runs in just three innings at Coors Field, Moore limited the Braves to just three runs over seven-plus innings. The left-hander exited after allowing an eighth-inning leadoff single to Ender Inciarte, who scored on Matt Kemp’s one-out double against George Kontos.
Teheran has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of his past three starts and completed at least seven innings in his past two outings. He has distanced himself from the struggles he had during his first few home starts, but the one mistake he made to Slater prevented him from savoring what might have been a gem.
“It was a two-seamer, I threw [Slater that pitch] in the at-bat before,” Teheran said. “I don’t know how he hit it that way. It’s part of the game. They were attacking that inning, and I was just trying to get out of the jam.”
Braves third baseman Johan Camargo recorded three hits, including an RBI triple in the two-run second inning. But his inability to cleanly field Pence’s grounder resulted in an infield single to begin the decisive eighth. Pence found more fortune moments later when he was ruled safe after shortstop Dansby Swanson couldn’t hold Brandon Phillips’ double-play feed. Slater followed with his second homer of the season.
The Giants surrendered seven eighth-inning runs during Monday’s series-opening loss. Thus, there was some tension when Kemp’s RBI double gave the Braves runners at second and third with just one out in the eighth. But lefty Josh Osich got Matt Adams to pop out before newly acquired righty Sam Dyson ended the threat with Kurt Suzuki’s flyout to right field.
Sean Newcomb will make his third career start against the Giants Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. CT. Newcomb’s scheduled start was moved up a day because Bartolo Colon was scratched with a stiff back.

Matt Olson’s walk-off three-run homer gave the Nashville Sounds a 6-3 win in game two of Tuesday’s doubleheader at First Tennessee Park. The dramatic homer completed a furious comeback and helped the Sounds earn a doubleheader split in front of 7,734 fans.
The Sounds’ offense was in a major funk and trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Joey Wendle cracked a three-run blast off Baby Cakes reliever Javy Guerra to even the game at 3-3. It snapped a 19-inning stretch in which the Sounds failed to score a run.
Simon Castro and the Nashville (36-34) bullpen did its part by keeping the game close. Patrick Schuster, Tucker Healy, Felix Doubront, and Castro combined to throw five scoreless innings after starter Paul Blackburn left in the third.
Castro’s scoreless top of the seventh set the stage for Olson’s dramatics in the home half of the inning. Franklin Barreto started the rally with an infield single off reliever Brandon Cunniff and Melvin Mercedes followed with a base hit into right field to send Barreto to third.
On the first pitch he saw from Cunniff, Olson sent a moon shot into the right field seats for the game-winner to set off a celebration at home plate. It was his 17th blast of the season and first walk-off knock.
The walk-off win flipped the switch on the night’s events. The Sounds were blanked by the Baby Cakes in game one, 3-0, as the offensive struggles continued.
A complete game effort by starter Corey Walter went for naught. The right-hander worked all seven innings and allowed three runs on six hits in a tough-luck loss.
The quality start didn’t matter much as New Orleans pitchers Chris O’Grady and Junichi Tazawa combined to shut out the Sounds on just five hits.
Franklin Barreto added a pair of hits for Nashville, but the team went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring chances as the opportunities were minimal.
The offense kicked into gear in game two with 12 hits. While Wendle and Olson had the game-changing blasts, several others had multi-hit games as well.
Barreto, Olson, Bruce Maxwell, and Renato Nuñez had two hits each.
The Sounds enjoy a league wide off day Wednesday before traveling to Oklahoma City to begin a four-game series with the Dodgers Thursday night. Right-hander Frankie Montas (0-0, 0.00) starts for Nashville against right-hander Fabio Castillo (4-3, 3.12) for Oklahoma City. First pitch is scheduled for 5:35 p.m.

Motlow State Community College featured 29 student-athletes, over 40 percent of the rosters of the baseball, softball, women’s basketball and men’s basketball teams, who achieved academic honors either on the Dean’s List or Honor Roll during the spring 2017 semester.

To be selected to the Dean’s List, a student must have a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.5. To earn a spot on the Honor Roll, the GPA must be between 3.0-3.49. The following student-athletes, by sport, achieved academic honors.

Women’s Basketball

Dean’s List – Sepe Moore, Clarksville; Miranda Boutwell, Linden; Sara Vujacic, Slovenia.

Honor Roll – LisaJo Wygal, Bardstown, KY; Aja Robertson, Bells; Sydney Floyd, Murfreesboro; Shalyn Washington, Henrico, VA.

Men’s Basketball
Dean’s List – Rashawn Fredericks, Tampa.

Honor Roll – Kevonte Corley, Antioch; Dillion Smith, Lexington.

Baseball

Dean’s List – Jase Carvell, Lawrenceburg; Lane Whitesell, Lewisburg; Camron Harper, Smyrna; Cory Coggins, Gallatin; Ryan Hartigan, Winchester, VA; C.J. Brown, Mt. Juliet.

Honor Roll – Jake Fossick, Port Charlotte, FL; D’Marcus Guillory, Buford, GA; Luke Allison, Goodlettsville; Darin Keller, Tullahoma; Jordan Burdette, Leoma; Kirby Smith, Fayetteville.

Softball

Dean’s List – Breanna Owens, Fayetteville; Ashton Watkins, Lewisburg; Riley O’Neal, Fayetteville.

Honor Roll – Renee Bolduc, Madison, AL; Taylor Mitchell, Dellrose; Miranda Cooksey, Lewisburg; Sarah Wilson, Sparta.