Category: Sports

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.

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.

Justin Bour returned from the disabled list in authoritative fashion and Dan Straily quieted a surging Braves offense as the Marlins soured Sean Newcomb’s second career start on the way to claiming a 5-0 win Friday night at SunTrust Park.

Coming off a shaky four-inning performance in Pittsburgh, Straily constructed one of his finest starts of the season, scattering four hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
“I was able to control my fastball more than anything,” Straily said. “It was something the last couple of starts that we kind of made it a focus on. It was something I was frustrated with. It really comes to fastball command, and the other stuff plays better.”
Straily induced 17 swinging strikes to go with 12 called, and he struck out eight batters without issuing a walk.
“You can be wishy-washy sometimes,” Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips said. “We had the same approach we had in [earlier this week in Washington] D.C., but we didn’t take advantage of the mistakes. Dan Straily kept the ball down, but he did make some mistakes. It just didn’t go our way today. But I’ll tell you what, the young kid [Newcomb] threw the [heck] out of the ball today.”
Christian Yelich delivered an RBI double in the first inning, and Bour homered with two outs in the fourth. This provided sufficient support for Straily, who retired 19 of his final 21 batters and did not allow a baserunner to advance past first base after the first inning. Yelich would later add a two-run single in the ninth.
The Braves had tallied double-digit run totals in two of their past three games against the Nationals in D.C. But they still have not scored for Newcomb, who gave up three runs on five hits in his second career start. The highly regarded left-handed prospect limited the damage in the sixth to one run, despite giving up two hits and issuing three of his four walks in the frame.
“The only thing you even worried about was the sixth,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of having bases loaded with one out but scoring just once. “We get the bases loaded and get only one there. You know you’ve left them in the game. You have a chance to leave them in the game there in the eighth, and Yeli gets a hit. That puts another nail in it.”
Newcomb allowed three of the first four batters to reach safely, then retired 10 in a row before leaving a fastball up to Bour, who drilled his two-out homer in the fourth inning deep over the center-field wall. The ball traveled a projected 435 feet per Statcast™ — the second-longest homer hit thus far at SunTrust Park. The Marlins’ first baseman had missed the past 10 days while recovering from a bruised left ankle.
“I was trying to get [the fastball] away,” Newcomb said. “It was up, and he was just able to get his bat head out there extended. He’s strong.” More >
After Ender Inciarte opened the first with a blooper to shallow center that he turned into a hustle double, Straily successfully navigated his way through the middle of Atlanta’s lineup that was without Matt Kemp, who is currently dealing with a sore left hamstring. The first-inning threat ended with Nick Markakis and Tyler Flowers recording back-to-back strikeouts.
“The first inning, you set the tone for the whole game,” Straily said. “The last thing you want to do when you start your day is have the third batter up, one out and a runner on third. You have to find a way to keep him from scoring. I was fortunate I was able to make some pitches and get a couple of strikeouts there and get out of the inning.”
Jaime Garcia will take the mound when this three-game set resumes on Saturday. Garcia has a 1.49 ERA over his past five starts, but to extend this success he’ll have to solve Giancarlo Stanton, who homered twice against him on April 12.

The Nashville Sounds salvaged a series split with the Iowa Cubs by taking Friday night’s contest 7-1 in front of 11,552 fans at First Tennessee Park. It was the third largest crowd in stadium history. Nashville jumped out to a 6-0 lead through two innings and the bullpen held on the rest of the way to close out the series.

The Sounds got off to a hot start in the opening frame by putting up a three-spot on the scoreboard. Franklin Barreto opened up the frame inning with a trickler back up the middle. He came around to score the opening run of the ball game on a sacrifice fly from Renato Nunez. Mark Canha continued the scoring in the opening frame by ripping a two-run single into center field to give Nashville starter, Felix Doubront a three-run cushion.

Nashville doubled its lead in the bottom of the second inning when Bruce Maxwell cracked a three-run blast beyond the 375 Club in right center field. For Maxwell it was his second long ball of the season.

Iowa got on the board in the top of the third inning when Jeimer Candelario laced a double into right center field off Doubront. Matt McBride regained the six run advantage for the Sounds in the sixth inning when he drove in Jaff Decker on a ground out with runners on the corners.

On the mound it was a it was a staff effort for the Sounds. Doubront went the first 2 2/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out two as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery. Aaron Kurcz took over for a season-high 3 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his first victory since April 19th. The I-Cubs scattered three hits against Kurcz who fanned five batters.

Tyler Sturdevant chipped in with a pair of scoreless innings with three strikeouts and Jake Sanchez shut the door on Iowa by tossing a scoreless ninth inning.

The Sounds welcome in the New Orleans Baby Cakes to First Tennessee Park for a four game series Saturday night. Frankie Montas (0-0, 0.00) starts for the Sounds while Adam Conley (1-2, 5.34) is on the mound for New Orleans.

The Coffee County Red Raider basketball team completed Day #4 of the MTSU team camp on Thursday with a perfect 3 and 0 record.  The win gives the Raiders a record of 10 and 2 for the 4 day camp.   Coffee County got wins over Providence Christian, Brentwood and perennial state powerhouse CPA.

The Red Raiders return to court next week as they will host a youth skills camp at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.  The camp gets underway on Monday and details can be found at: http://www.thunder1320.com/sports/red-raider-basketball-to-host-youth-skills-camp/

Rain forced the postponement of the start of the 14th annual Crethan Hansert Memorial Baseball Tournament on Thursday. The tournament will get underway on Friday beginning at 2 PM as Coffee County is set to take on Franklin County at Powers Field. The Red Raiders are scheduled to play 2 games on Saturday.
Coffee County will begin play on Saturday morning at 9 AM against Grundy County before taking on Walker Valley at 3:15 PM. Sunday’s schedule is tentatively scheduled for a makeup rain date. If it is not needed as a rain date, Sunday will be used for a single elimination bracket championship round.
The complete schedule is:
Friday, June 16
2:00 – Coffee County vs. Franklin County
4:00 – Grundy Co vs. Central Magnet
6:00 – Marshall Co vs. Central Magnet
8:00 – Marshall Co vs. Walker Valley

Saturday, June 17
9:00 – Coffee County vs. Grundy Co
11:15 – Grundy Co vs. Warren Co
1:30 – Walker Valley vs. Warren Co
3:45 – Coffee County vs. Walker Valley
6:00 – Franklin Co vs. Marshall Co
8:15 – Franklin Co vs. Central Magnet

The Coffee County Lady Raider volleyball team will be holding a benefit car wash on Friday.  From noon to 5 PM you can get your car washed and support the Lady Raiders as they raise money to attend a team camp at Cumberland University in July.  The car wash will take place at Advance Auto Parts in Manchester which is located at 1751 Hillsboro Blvd.

It was a sloppy Thursday night in Nashville between the Sounds and the Iowa Cubs in front of 10,469 fans at First Tennessee Park. A total of six runs scored but just two were earned in Iowa’s 4-2 victory.

The first two batters of the ball game reached on base hits for the Sounds. Franklin Barreto came around to open the scoring on a sacrifice fly from Matt Olson.
Nashville starter, Paul Blackburn was superb through the first five innings but things unraveled for him in the sixth. Stephen Bruno reached on an error by the shortstop Franklin Barreto. Blackburn then issued back-to-back free passes to load the bases for Jacob Hannemann who promptly singled home the game-tying run. The Sounds hurler recorded outs on the next two hitters but yielded a two-run double to Victor Caratini to surrender the lead to the I-Cubs.

Blackburn was dealt his sixth loss of the season despite not allowing an earned run. He worked 5.2 frames and gave up three runs on three hits while walking four batters and striking out three.

Nashville got a run back in the home half of the sixth when Mark Canha hit a chopper that ate up the third baseman, Chris Dominguez, allowing Wendle to come home. Iowa’s Mark Zagunis doubled the I-Cubs’ lead in the top of the seventh by roping a double down the left field line off the birthday boy, Tucker Healy.

The Sounds got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning after Jermaine Curtis doubled with two outs but he was left stranded there.

Barreto recorded his fourth multi-hit game in his last five with two more base knocks tonight.

Simon Castro fanned four hitters in two shutout innings out of the Sounds bullpen.

The series finale is scheduled for Friday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Michael Brady (3-1, 3.67) starts for Nashville and Iowa has not announced a starter. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.