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Red Raider Basketball to Host Youth Skills Camp
The Coffee County Red Raider basketball team will be hosting a youth basketball camp. The Red Raider Skills Academy will take place on Monday, June 19th thru Thursday, June 22nd. The camp will run from 10 AM to 1 PM each day and is open to boys and girls who will be in grades 3rd thru 8th. Cost for the camp is $50 per camper and the camp will be held at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym at Central High School. To pre-register online, visit https://docs.google.com/a/k12coffee.net/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD1NonkoHFJ10c-Mrz9500M5tr9NFjLerg_hxdDA2o0FZXkg/viewform?c=0&w=1
Registration will also be taken on the first day of camp. For additional info call Head Coach Micah Williams (931) 492-2123 or email williamsm@k12coffee.net
UPDATE–Georgia Escapees Caught just Outside Coffee County
Donnie Rowe, 43, and Ricky DuBose, 24, allegedly killed the two correctional officers in Georgia while they were being transferred to another facility by transport bus.
Ongoing investigative efforts continue to indicate the pair, forced their way into a home in Shelbyville at approximately 2:00 PM on Thursday afternoon. Dubose and Rowe held the couple hostage for around 3 hours and then left in the couple’s vehicle. The victims were able to notify law enforcement about the encounter and identity the assailants.
Law enforcement officers began an effort to locate the vehicle, were able to do so, and soon began a pursuit, which wound from Bedford County along State Route 231, into Rutherford County, and on to Interstate 24. During the pursuit, which lasted more than 20 miles and reached dangerously high speeds, shots were fired from the suspects’ vehicle, striking several Rutherford County cruisers. Ultimately, the pair crashed the vehicle along Interstate 24, at approximately Mile Marker 91, (just a few miles from the Coffee County line) and fled on foot through a tree line. They approached a nearby home, where an alert resident was able to safely notify law enforcement officers, leading to the immediate arrests of the individuals.
Dubose and Rowe remain in the custody of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, awaiting extradition proceedings. The determination about any criminal charges in Tennessee has not yet been made.
During their run through Rutherford County they made their way to the driveway of a home on Pruitt Road where they were caught trying to steal a second vehicle from the home.
Initial reports by police said that the owner and a neighbor held the men at gun point until police arrived. However, Patrick Hale, set the record straight the next day, saying the men surrendered and he never drew his gun.
Tennessee Unemployment Rate Lowest in 20 Years
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for the month of May was 4.0 percent. That’s according to numbers from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The 4.0 percent rate is down from the April rate of 4.7 percent.
The national unemployment rate is at 4.3 percent, a drop of one-tenth of a percentage point from April.
Officials say the May rate is the lowest Tennessee has seen in about 20 years.
In a year’s span, Tennessee’s unemployment rate has decreased six-tenths of a percentage point from last year’s 4.6 percent. The national rate fell less than half a percentage point from 4.7 to 4.3 percent.
Alert! Missing Teen from Murfreesboro
Matthew Stafford walked away Thursday (6/15/2017) from his job at Sonic Drive-In on Middle Tennessee Boulevard.
The teen was last seen at Walmart on South Rutherford Boulevard around 5:00 o’clock Thursday evening where he cashed a check.
Sergeant Kyle Evans told our news partner NewsRadio WGNS, “He has no previous history of running away.”
The report of this missing teen notes that he has no known illnesses, no drug or alcohol issues, and no mental health challenges.
Anyone with information about Matthew Stafford’s whereabouts, please contact the Murfreesboro Police Department at 615-893-1311.
“Stuff the Bus” Tour Coming Soon
It is that time of year again! Coffee County Schools Family Resource Center is gearing up for its Coffee County Student Expo- a student support event to engage students, staff, and community organizations with the goal of combating barriers that hinder student academic success. This event provides Coffee County Schools’ students in need, grades Pre-K-12th, with a backpack, school supplies, hygiene items, etc.
Taylor Rayfield, Coffee County Schools Coordinator of Family Resource Center said, “Community partnerships and sponsors foster this program, providing necessary items for our students. He added, “We are fortunate to live in a community that ensures the needs of our children are met. We are excited and look forward to working with our businesses, industries, and organizations on this event.”
They need your help “Stuffing the Bus”! For the first time, Coffee County Schools Family Resource Center, in partnership with the Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce, will be hosting a ‘Stuff the Bus Tour: On the Road to Success’ on Wednesday, July 19th. Coffee County Schools Family Resource Center will be touring around businesses, industries, and organizations in Manchester picking up needed school supply items to ‘stuff the bus.’
Items needed:
Packs of #2 Pencils, Colored Pencils, Pens, Wide Ruled Loose Paper, Graph Paper, Glue, Scissors, Index Cards, Composition Books, Spiral Notebooks, Folders with Prongs, and 3-Ring Notebook Binders.
If your business, industry, or organization would like to participate in the Stuff the Bus Tour, please contact the Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce (931) 728-7635 or Taylor Rayfield, rayfieldt@k12coffee.net (931) 222-1066, (931) 409-8556 to sign up.
Braves Rally, Win Second Straight on Walk-Off
As the Braves play with a chip on their shoulders and prove their doubters wrong, they continue to receive timely hits from the likes of Brandon Phillips, who delivered his second walk-off hit in less than 24 hours to cap Sunday afternoon’s 5-4 win over the Marlins at SunTrust Park.
Atlanta has recorded a Major League-best 11 last at-bat wins this season. These victories account for more than a third of the club’s season victory total (31).
“I’ve been kind of talking about these guys for a long time,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You keep the game manageable, they have a knack of figuring out a way to win. If we can stay in the game, I like our chances.”
Johan Camargo recorded a one-out infield single, then advanced to third base on Ender Inciarte’s single to left-center field. With runners at the corners and one out, the Marlins brought Marcell Ozuna in from left field to serve as an extra infielder. But Phillips still found a hole as he bounced his game winner through the middle of the infield.
“It was one of those balls kind of up the middle,” Marlins shortstop JT Riddle said. “I should have dove for it.”
After surrendering just one hit in wildly effective fashion through the first six innings, Marlins starter Jose Urena saw the Braves open a four-run seventh with consecutive singles. Nick Markakis’ two-run single off Nick Wittgren gave Atlanta a lead until Marcell Ozuna drilled a game-tying, two-run homer off Jose Ramirez in the eighth.
The Marlins had multi-run leads slip away in late innings on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in dropping two of three in the series.
“You feel like you had chances to win both games,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Yesterday, we’re up four and weren’t able to hold on. Today, Jose pitches really good. We had chances to tack on runs, [but] we weren’t able to do that.”
Dansby Swanson raced to second base on Rio Ruiz’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and scored when Camargo followed with an RBI single. Camargo provided similar hustle in the ninth when he advanced from first to third base on Inciarte’s single to left-center field. His aggressive decision was influenced by his realization Ozuna was playing a little deeper and closer to the left-field line to protect against a potential double.
“In those situations, you’re always looking at the positioning of the fielders to know where they’re at,” Camargo said through an interpreter. “So I noticed they were playing a little further back. So I knew I had my opportunity to go for third base.”
Foltynewicz recorded a strike on 14 of 17 pitches through the first two innings before issuing a four-pitch walk to Riddle open the third. Riddle advanced to third base on a Dee Gordon single that put runners at the corners with one out. But when Gordon advanced toward second base on the back end of a Giancarlo Stanton strikeout, Phillips cut off catcher Kurt Suzuki’s throw and fired back to the plate to begin a rundown that retired Riddle.
“That [play] gets [messed] up a lot [defensively] no matter how much you work on it,” Snitker said. “You work on it a lot during Spring Training. It’s never game speed. That was about as good as it gets right there.”
Ozuna was 0-for-9 in the series before his two-run homer tied the game at 4 in the eighth. Statcast™ projected the drive at 395 feet with an exit velocity of 103.1 mph. The home run was his team-leading 18th of the season, as Miami’s left fielder continues to have an All-Star-worthy first half.
Urena hit back-to-back batters in Matt Adams and Suzuki with two-strike fastballs, exchanging some words with the former. Urena also hit Markakis with a two-strike slider in the third inning. Nothing escalated.
“We’re not just going to go out to hit people to be hitting people,” Mattingly said. “Those aren’t situations that we really want to keep putting runners on. I know it may have looked funny, but they’re pretty obvious that he’s not trying to hit anybody there.”
R.A. Dickey takes the mound at 6:35 p.m. CT on Monday as the Braves open a four-game series against the Giants at SunTrust Park. Dickey has a 4.15 ERA there, but the Braves have won his last three home starts. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.
Sounds and Baby Cakes Postponed due to Rain
Sunday’s doubleheader between the Nashville Sounds and New Orleans Baby Cakes has been postponed due to rain at First Tennessee Park.
The doubleheader was scheduled as part of the April 30th suspended game between the two teams.
Nashville and New Orleans will now play back-to-back doubleheaders at First Tennessee Park on Monday, June 19 and Tuesday, June 20th. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. on Monday and play begins at 5:35 with the continuation of the April 30th suspended game. The Sounds and Baby Cakes will start in the top of the fourth inning with the score even at 0-0 and play a full nine-inning game.
Approximately 30 minutes after game one, the two teams will play Monday’s originally scheduled game as a seven-inning contest.
Fans with a ticket to today’s doubleheader may exchange it at the First Tennessee Park box office for a ticket of equal or lesser value for any 2017 home game – subject to availability.
Fans with a ticket to the original Monday, June 19th contest with New Orleans can enjoy the finish of the suspended game and the original game with just one ticket.
On Tuesday, the Sounds and Baby Cakes will play a standard Pacific Coast League doubleheader with both games scheduled for seven innings. Gates will open at 4:30 and first pitch is set for 5:35.
Fans with a ticket to the original Tuesday, June 20th contest against New Orleans can enjoy both games of the doubleheader for the price of one ticket.
The 2017 season is the Sounds’ 40th in franchise history and their third as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Single-game tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.
Braves Rally Late, Walk Off in Extras vs. Marlins
Brandon Phillips fueled a ninth-inning rally against AJ Ramos, then induced further damage off the Marlins’ closer with a 10th-inning walk-off single that enabled the Braves to overcome a five-run fifth inning and claim a 8-7 win Saturday afternoon at SunTrust Park.
Phillips’ game-ending line-drive single to center completed a determined comeback generated by the Braves, who opened the bottom of the 10th with a single by Johan Camargo, who advanced to second base on Julio Teheran’s sacrifice bunt. When Ender Inciarte followed with a comebacker, Ramos’ attempt to catch Camargo too far off second base sailed into center field, giving the Braves two on with one out. Phillips then produced his seventh career game-ending RBI, first since 2013.
“Any time you win, it feels good, it feels the same to me,” said Phillips, who is enjoying his first season with his hometown team. “But for myself, my first walk-off win as a Brave, it really means a lot, playing in front of my family and friends. It just shows our grind as a team. We’re never out of any game.”
In the ninth inning, Ramos said he elevated a slider to Phillips. In the 10th, a two-seam fastball didn’t bite enough, and Phillips laced it into center to end the game.
“The two-seam, I pulled it, and it was down the middle,” Ramos said. “It was down, but he was looking for it. I had a feeling he knew it was coming. I don’t care if he did or not. If I execute that pitch, he doesn’t do anything with it. It was down the middle, and he just stayed with it and hit it up the middle.”
Braves starter Jaime Garcia faced one more than the minimum through the first four innings and had not allowed more than four runs during any of his previous 12 starts this season. But things got weird during Miami’s five-run fifth inning, which was fueled by Tyler Moore drilling an 0-2 curveball over the left-field wall for a two-run homer. After Giancarlo Stanton drew an intentional walk, Christian Yelich capped the uprising by hitting a two-run double to right field.
“We didn’t tack on any runs,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You can say, ‘Well, we scored seven.’ But we scored seven in two innings and really didn’t score the rest of the game.”
Matt Adams paced the Braves with a three-hit, four-RBI game that began with a two-out RBI double in the first and included a two-run homer in the third against Marlins starter Jeff Locke, who was lifted after just four innings.
Tyler Flowers opened the home half of the sixth with a shot that traveled a Statcast-projected 434 feet — the third-longest homer hit thus far at SunTrust Park. Four batters later, Camargo delivered an RBI single that cut the Braves’ deficit to two runs and put runners at the corners for pinch-hitter Matt Kemp, who lined out to right field in his first appearance since tweaking his left hamstring on Wednesday. Kemp’s liner wasn’t deep enough to score Danny Santana.
Phillips opened the ninth with a double off the left-center-field wall, and Nick Markakis added to Ramos’ problems when he hit a game-tying double that bounced off the first-base bag and landed down the right-field line. But the Marlins closer escaped further damage when he ended the threat with consecutive strikeouts, including one of Dansby Swanson to conclude a 10-pitch at-bat.
“From this, you’ve got to keep working and know that you can get the job done,” said Ramos, who had converted his first nine save opportunities. “The bullpen has been solid, until today. Guys have bad games. They were putting good swings on balls. They get paid to. They did a good job. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”
It looked like Marlins right-hander Kyle Barraclough was going to work a perfect seventh inning when Flowers lofted a two-out soft fly ball (78.1-mph exit velocity, per Statcast™). But Yelich got a bad read and ultimately proved unsuccessful when he attempted to recover with a diving catch attempt. Adams then followed with an RBI double to cap his 23rd career three-hit game, but the first of which included three extra-base hits.
Mike Foltynewicz will take the mound for the finale of this three-game set on Sunday. Foltynewicz had thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings before allowing a season-high eight runs over just 3 1/3 frames on Tuesday at Nationals Park.
Sounds Walk-Off in Front of Sellout Crowd
Renato Nuñez’s walk-off base hit in the bottom of the ninth gave the Sounds a 3-2 win over the New Orleans Baby Cakes in front of a sellout crowd of 11,678 at First Tennessee Park Saturday night.
The Sounds (35-31) led for majority of the night before New Orleans came back with two runs in the top of the eighth to even the game.
New Orleans turned to Kyle Lobstein in the bottom of the ninth but the lefty found trouble immediately. He walked Ryan Lavarnway to put a runner on to start the frame. Matt McBride pinch-ran and moved to second on Jermaine Curtis’ sac bunt.
After an intentional walk to Franklin Barreto and a Bruce Maxwell fly out, New Orleans had a chance to get out of the inning when Matt Olson hit a bouncer to the right side. Lobstein covered first on the play but couldn’t handle the throw and runners were safe at every base.
On a 3-2 pitch from Lobstein, Nuñez sent a line drive to the wall in left field that Chad Hinshaw couldn’t come up with. McBride scored the winning run and the celebration followed.
Nashville starter Frankie Montas lit up the radar gun in his first start of the season. The right-hander routinely hit 100 mph on the gun and struck out seven in three innings. He turned the action over to Chris Jensen who proceeded to work three scoreless innings.
Maxwell provided the first two runs of the night for Nashville. His sacrifice fly gave the Sounds a 1-0 lead in the third, and his bases loaded walk in the seventh pushed the lead to 2-0.
The lead didn’t last as Sounds relievers Simon Castro and Jake Sanchez combined to issue four walks in the top of the eighth inning. Mike Aviles cut the deficit to 2-1 with a run-scoring base hit, and Cal Towey drew a bases loaded walk to even the game at 2-2.
Sanchez came back to work a perfect top of the ninth to set the stage for the game-winner. The walk-off was the third of the season for the Sounds.
Saturday’s sellout was the third straight, and 11th of the season at First Tennessee Park. 33,699 people have passed through the gates over the last three games.
Game two and three of the five-game set are scheduled for Sunday evening at First Tennessee Park. The Sounds and Baby Cakes resume the suspended April 30th contest at 5:05 p.m. and will play a full nine innings. Game two of the doubleheader will be 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
6/23/17 — Darlene Walker
Darlene Walker, age 57, of Belvidere, Tenn. departed this life suddenly on Friday, June 16, 2017, at her residence following an extended illness. Miss. Walker was born in Huntsville, Alabama to the late Clyde Lucas and Helen Acklin Walker on May 16, 1960. She was a 1978 graduate of Huntland High School and received her B.S. degree at MTSU in 1983. She was employed for approximately 30 years with the State of Tennessee at the Franklin County Health Dept. last holding the position of public health office supervisor. She enjoyed fishing, watching movies and socializing with her friends.
Miss. Walker is survived by her Aunts; Jean Walker Stopher of Bluff City, Tenn., and Bettye Crowley of Atlantic Beach, Fla., A host of cousins to numerous to name. Life long friends; Denise Robertson and Becky Haston both of Belvidere and Sarah Simmons of Huntland.
Visitation is scheduled for 4:00-8:00 P.M. Thursday evening, June 22, 2017, in the Chapel of Grant Funeral Services. Services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Friday, June 23, 2017, in the Chapel of Grant Funeral Services with Pastor Chris Haynes and Pastor Kevin Simmons, officiating.
Interment will follow in the Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Ala. next to her beloved parents.
GRANT FUNERAL SERVICES IN CHARGE OF THE ARRANGEMENTS