Category: Sports

CCMS track athlete Macy Tabor on the awards podium at the 2017 TMSAA state meet(Photo provided by Travis O’Kelley)

Facing the best middle school athletes in Tennessee, Macy Tabor and Lexie Hosea competed in Saturday’s Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association(TMSAA) Track & Field State Championships at Fortera Stadium on the campus of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Competing in the large school division, Hosea competed in the discus while Tabor jumped in the high jump.
Tabor jumped a new personal best of 4’10” in the high jump to capture a 2nd place finish. Tabor came in at 4’ and cleared each height without a fault through 4’10” to capture a medal. Zhordan Shannon of Stewarts Creek captured first place with a jump of 5’.
Hosea earned a 15th place finish in the discus. Hosea had a toss of 49’ 4” on her second attempt for her best throw. Hosea picked up her only scratch on her fourth and final throw as she was looking to move up in the standings. Hallie DeArman of Rhea Middle School won the discus with an unbelievable throw of 102’6”.
The Lady Raider duo’s accomplishments gave Coffee County 8 team points. That was enough to earn the Lady Raiders a 19th place team finish out of the 35 teams in the meet. Liberty Bell Middle School from Johnson City won the meet.  The Coffee County track team is coached by Travis O’Kelley.

In Game Five of the Western Conference Final, the Nashville Predators faced their biggest bout of adversity yet. No problem.

Pontus Aberg tallied the winner in the third period and the Predators defeated the Anaheim Ducks by a 3-1 count in Game Five to take a 3-2 lead in the series. Nashville is now just one win away from reaching their first Stanley Cup Final as they gutted out one of their most complete victories of the postseason without their two top centerman.

After Ryan Johansen suffered a thigh injury in Game Four that ended his season, and with Captain Mike Fisher out for Game Five as well, the Preds regrouped up front and found new ways to shut the Ducks down.

“You’d like to have a full and healthy lineup, but that’s not what happened,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had guys show up and play extremely hard today and hard fought. This is a tough building to play in against a good team, a veteran team, and we’re able to walk away with a win.”

“It was a great win,” forward Austin Watson said. “Missing Joey and Fish, two incredible hockey players for our team… those are two tough guys to miss out of our lineup. But it’s next man up in here, [we’re] ready to go and I thought it was a great win.”

A scoreless first period led to a change to start the second, with Jonathan Bernier taking over in goal for the Ducks in place of John Gibson, who left with a lower-body injury. It was Anaheim who got on the board first when Chris Wagner capitalized on a rebound in front, but just before the frame was out, No. 33 in white cashed in. On a late power play, Colin Wilson backhanded his second of the postseason home past Bernier at the 19:19 mark to even the score, a big boost for Nashville before the intermission.

Then, it was Filip Forsberg who led a rush midway through the third, and after Bernier stopped the initial shot, Aberg followed it up with a reach around the Ducks goaltender to slide the puck over the line to give Nashville the lead. Pekka Rinne put on a show during the 60 minutes – just as he’s done so many times in these playoffs – and Watson threw home an empty-netter to put the Preds one win closer to the ultimate prize.

“I think we said it all year; whatever 20 guys go out there, we’re fully confident in the group we have going,” Watson said. “For guys like Freddie Gaudreau to come in and play the way that he did, for guys to just step up and maybe take on some more minutes; that was a huge win for us tonight.”

There’s no sense in refusing to think about it – the Predators know what will be at stake on Monday in Nashville, and while they don’t want to get ahead of themselves, the longest-tenured member of the club says it’s not a bad thing to ponder what might be next.

“I think it’s good to think about those things and visualize,” Rinne said. “You think about it, and we all know that it’s nothing but a Game Six for us. If we win it, we’re in the Final. If we lose it, we come back here, and we don’t want to do that. It’s a big game for us, and it feels good to go home to play in front of our own fans.”

Depth Comes Through:

Prior to Game Five, Pontus Aberg only had 25 games of NHL experience to his name, including the playoffs. But that’s the captivating aspect of this time of the year – when one player goes down, another steps up.

The Predators were without the services of Ryan Johansen and Mike Fisher on Saturday in Anaheim, a blow that wouldn’t have been easy for any team to overcome. However, Nashville found a way to put the Ducks on the brink of elimination without their leading scorer or their captain.

“I think facing adversity today, we knew that coming into tonight, we knew that we had to just come together, play well defensively, grind it out and I felt that’s what we did,” Rinne said. “[We] showed a lot of character. I feel like for us, the first couple of rounds were fairly smooth sailing and things were going our way and every series you deal with adversity. Right now, it’s something that every team is going to face and I think we handled it really well.”

It was thanks to players like Aberg, who scored the winner at 11:01 of the third period, the first playoff goal of his career. It’s been said that good things happen when one goes to the net, and after losing a tooth on the shift before, that’s all Aberg had to do.

“I just tried to bring my game up there,” Aberg said. “We’re missing two huge players for this team, and I played with really good players today, [Forsberg and Colton Sissons], and it felt pretty good.”

Frederick Gaudreau was another who got the call, skating in the first postseason game of his career and looking like he had done it a hundred times before.

“I had goosebumps,” Gaudreau said after the game. “It’s just a dream, and to be able to be part of that, it’s really special for sure.”

The dream will continue for the Predators. And in the biggest game in franchise history – until the next one – Nashville simply found a way, just as they’ve now done 11 times in the 2017 postseason.

Notes:

Preds Captain Mike Fisher did not play in Game Five after he left Game Four. After Game Five, Head Coach Peter Laviolette called Fisher’s injury day-to-day.

Forward Frederick Gaudreau made his Stanley Cup Playoff debut in Game Five, skating 11:40 of ice time and going 10-for-14 in the face-off circle.

Game Six between the Predators and Ducks is set for Monday night at 7 p.m. (CT) at Bridgestone Arena. If necessary, Game Seven would come on Wednesday evening in Anaheim.

Stephen Strasburg delivered his best start of the season and Daniel Murphy homered off an effective Jaime Garcia as the Nationals snapped their longest losing streak of the season (4 games) with Sunday afternoon’s 3-2 win over the Braves at SunTrust Park.

Strasburg notched a season-high 11 strikeouts and surrendered two runs over 7 2/3 innings while helping the Nationals avoid being swept by the Braves, who lost for just the third time in their past 10 games.
“Well, we needed every bit of it,” Nats manager Dusty Baker said. “He was very sharp. All his pitches were sharp. He threw a bunch of strikes, and they played us tough. Every game here was tough. It’s never easy.”
Murphy provided early support as he opened the second inning by drilling a low 2-0 fastball over the right-field wall. Washington added two more unearned runs during a two-run third inning fueled by Nick Markakis’ inability to secure Trea Turner’s fly ball.
Murphy’s ninth homer of the season stood as one of the few blemishes on the line produced by Garcia, who allowed three runs — one earned — and seven hits while not issuing a walk over eight innings. The left-hander entered having issued 14 walks over his past three starts. His only support came courtesy of Dansby Swanson’s two-run double in the eighth inning.
“I just missed with the sinker on the first pitch and threw a four-seamer trying to get back into the count,” Garcia said of the Murphy home run. “He put a good swing on it, and I am not trying to take anything away from him. I didn’t execute, and I paid the consequences. I knew I had to still make pitches after that.”
Markakis dropped Turner’s relatively routine fly ball near the right-field warning track to begin the third, and Garcia bobbled the Wilmer Difo grounder that followed. This set the stage for the Nationals to extend their lead to 3-0 with Bryce Harper’s RBI single and Ryan Zimmerman’s double-play groundout that scored Difo.
“This shows you one play makes the difference in the game,” Markakis said. “I should have caught that ball. It tipped off my glove, and they scored a couple runs right there. There’s no excuses there. That ball should have been caught.”
Swanson’s perseverance: After seeing just 10 pitches while striking out in each of his first three plate appearances, Swanson provided a glimpse of his determination and confidence when he looked at a low 2-2 curveball that just missed the outside corner.
“I was just emptying the tank. I knew the situation, and I made a good pitch there but didn’t get the call,” Strasburg said. “Oh, well. So you got to go out there and make the next pitch.”
The rookie shortstop then fouled consecutive heaters before drilling a 97.6 mph fastball off the right-field wall for the two-run double that ended Strasburg’s 118-pitch effort.
“Strasburg had been unbelievable all day,” Swanson said. “You look up and he’s thrown like 85 percent strikes, and you look at how many balls were put in play and it was very, very limited. He mixed up his pitches well and put them where he wanted. When a guy has that good of stuff and that good of command, you’ve just got to grind out at-bats. Luckily, I was able to come through and get us a little closer.”
Baker added: “[Swanson] was tough this series. He was probably the toughest .201 hitter in the league.”
Mike Foltynewicz will take the mound when Atlanta hosts Pittsburgh in the opener of a four-game set on Monday at 6:35 p.m. CT. Foltynewicz has allowed fewer than two earned runs in three of his past five starts.

A dominant performance from Jharel Cotton and a three RBI day from Matt Olson propelled the Nashville Sounds past the Sacramento River Cats 4-0 Sunday afternoon. Cotton was electric all game long as he matched his season-high with nine punch outs to lead the Sounds to their first Sunday victory in 2017.

Cotton’s nine strikeouts and seven innings pitched were both season-highs for any Sounds pitcher in a game this season. The River Cats scattered just three hits in those seven innings against Cotton and drew just one walk against him.

Offensively for the Sounds Olson did the heavy lifting with three runs batted in. The 23-year-old slugger went 4-for-4 including a two-run double in the third inning and a solo blast in the eighth. His three runs driven in on the day gave him 27 on the season which is tied for the team lead with Franklin Barreto.

For the seventh game in a row the Sounds crossed the plate first. In the third inning Jaycob Brugman drew a walk then Barreto doubled. Olson drove them both in with a double of his own down the right field line to make it 2-0 Sounds. In the seventh inning the Sounds added a little insurance. Kenny Wilson drove in his first run since May 1 with a single through the hole on the left side of the infield to score Matt McBride from second base and extend the Sounds lead to 3-0. Nashville completed the scoring in the eighth inning when Olson flashed some opposite field power by driving a 1-2 pitch over the right field fence.

For the Nashville pitching staff it was the third shutout of the season and second in the series against Sacramento. The Sounds are now 3-2 in shutout games this season.

Brugman extended his season-long hitting streak to nine games with a single in the ninth inning. His career long is ten games which he has reached on three occasions. Wilson and Matt Chapman each recorded a pair of hits for the Sounds.

The Sounds wrap up their eight game road trip with game four of their series in Sacramento tomorrow night against the River Cats at Raley Field. Right-hander Daniel Gossett (1-2, 4.31) starts for Nashville against right-hander Dan Slania (0-5, 8.65) for Sacramento. First pitch is slated for 9:05 p.m.

Rio Ruiz hit a memorable first career home run and Matt Kemp also took Max Scherzer deep before stellar bullpen work helped the Braves claim a 5-2 win over the Nationals on Saturday at SunTrust Park.

The Braves took an early lead on the way to winning for the seventh time in their past nine games and extending the Nationals’ season-long skid to four games. Ruiz, who sneaked a two-out, two-run homer over the right-field wall in the second inning, and Kemp, who was 5-for-40 against Scherzer before leading off the fourth with a shot into the left-field seats, put Atlanta ahead, 3-0.
“Freddie [Freeman] went down and these guys have stepped up,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, whose team has won three of four since Freeman fractured his wrist. “There wasn’t anybody feeling sorry for anybody. They’ve just gone out and played.”
Provided the early cushion, Bartolo Colon ended each of the first four innings with strikeouts and kept the Nationals scoreless until he made an errant throw to second base after fielding Scherzer’s grounder for a potential inning-ending double play in the fifth. The 43-year-old hurler’s miscue helped the Nationals tally a pair runs and cut the deficit to 3-2 before a one-hour, 50-minute rain delay before the start of the sixth.
After Scherzer needed 106 pitches to complete five innings of three-run ball, the Braves’ bullpen preserved the lead by not allowing a hit over 4 2/3 scoreless frames. Atlanta’s relievers have not allowed a hit or run over 8 1/3 innings during this series.
“We’re in a tough period right now,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “Can’t hang your head. I don’t want these guys — they’re probably a little down — but you gotta keep fighting because tomorrow’s another day, and you just got to keep grinding. Nothing lasts forever, good and bad. Every team, every good team, is going to go on a three- or four-game losing streak. Hopefully this is the end of it tonight.”
After throwing Scherzer’s grounder into center field, Colon surrendered consecutive RBI singles to Trea Turner and Jayson Werth. This prompted the entry of Ian Krol, who promptly subdued his former team’s threat to take the lead. Krol induced Bryce Harper’s weak popup, then ended the inning by getting Ryan Zimmerman to look at a 2-2 fastball that painted the inside corner.
“I think a lot of things have bounced against us in the last few days,” Turner said. “It’s not all bad luck. At the same time, a few things here or there gets the momentum our way, we could’ve won a few of the ballgames the last few days. That’s just baseball. You got to roll with it, and keep moving forward.”
Braves catcher Tyler Flowers delivered a one-out single that put him in position to score on a Dansby Swanson fielder’s choice that gave the Braves a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning. Flowers, who is hitting .349, then capped his ninth multi-hit game of the season with an eighth-inning solo shot off Matt Albers.
Jaime Garcia takes the mound when Atlanta and Washington conclude the three-game series on Sunday. Garcia has issued 14 walks over his past three starts (17 1/3 innings).  Thunder Radio begins live coverage at noon on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network.

The Nashville Sounds brought the tying run to the plate twice in the final two innings but dropped Saturday night’s game 8-5 to the Sacramento River Cats. Nashville once again failed to get over the hump and get above .500 for the season.

Despite reaching the .500 mark for the seventh time in 2017, the Sounds still have not been above .500 since April 8 when they were 2-1.

For the sixth consecutive ball game the Sounds (19-20) drew first blood but unlike the previous five it wasn’t the long ball that broke the ice. With the bases loaded in the top of the third inning, Matt Chapman drew a walk to score Jaycob Brugman who started the two out rally with a base hit.

After getting through the first three innings without incident, Chris Bassitt’s command faltered a bit in the fourth inning. He hit the leadoff batter, Aaron Hill, and then left a hanger that was banged over the left field porch to give the River Cats (16-25) a 2-1 advantage. Bassitt (1-1, 7.24) would hit Hill again in the fifth inning along with Wynton Bernard before Ryder Jones unloaded a grand slam to break open the game and make it 6-1 River Cats. When all the dust had settled, Bassitt yielded seven runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings of work with two walks and three hit batters.

Nashville got two runs back in the sixth inning when Joey Wendle went yard to begin the frame. For Wendle it was his third home run of the season and Nashville’s 54th of 2017. Ryan Lavarnway followed Wendle’s long ball with a base hit and came in to score on Ryan LaMarre’s sharply hit single.

Wendle again made his presence felt in the seventh inning. With two outs and Chapman on first base, Wendle ripped a double just fair down the left field line to score Chapman and cut the River Cats lead to 7-4. The Sounds would bring the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning in the form of Franklin Barreto but they were unable to claw any closer as Kyle Crick fanned Barreto on a 97 mile per hour heater.

Renato Nunez led off the ninth inning with a no-doubt home run over the left field fence to inch one run closer and Wendle picked up his third hit of the game two batters later. Lavarnway drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate for the second straight inning but Crick got Chris Parmelee and LaMarre to strike out to secure the victory for the River Cats.
The two home runs for the Sounds extended their streak of six straight games with at least two big flys.

The Sounds play game three of their four-game set in Sacramento Sunday afternoon against the River Cats at Raley Field. Right-hander Jharel Cotton (1-0, 5.40) starts for Nashville against right-hander Chris Stratton (0-1, 5.96) for Sacramento. First pitch is slated for 3:05 p.m.

Needing to pick up some of the slack with Freddie Freeman sidelined for at least the next two months, Nick Markakis delivered a go-ahead single and Kurt Suzuki homered to further enrich the three-run eighth inning the Braves constructed during Friday night’s 7-4 win over the Nationals at SunTrust Park.

Brandon Phillips drew a walk off Enny Romero and then notched his second stolen base of the game before scoring on Markakis’ RBI single. Suzuki extended Romero’s woes when he drilled a two-run homer into the left-field seats, his third home run of the season and second in as many days.
“I think we should really realize [Markakis] had that professional at-bat, lefty on lefty with a guy throwing 98 [mph],” Suzuki said. “That set everything up. I got to see a lot of pitches from the side. He put us on top, and it was just nice to get that little extra insurance.”
Dansby Swanson gave the Braves an early lead with a two-run homer in the second inning, but the rookie shortstop also committed one of the two defensive miscues that allowed the Nationals to tally three runs in the third inning. After Daniel Murphy answered Matt Kemp’s game-tying homer in the third with a solo shot in the fourth, Atlanta tied the game with Suzuki’s one-out double in the fifth.
“I think that our mentality, especially missing the big guy [Freeman], is going to be this idea of bending but not breaking,” Braves starter R.A. Dickey said. “Tonight against a really good ball club, and Washington is the best for a reason, you knew it was going to be a dogfight from pitch one.”
While Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez needed 116 pitches to complete 5 2/3 innings, Atlanta knuckleballer Dickey tallied 116 pitches over 5 1/3 innings. The Braves won for the sixth time in their past eight games with the help of a bullpen that did not allow a hit.
Meanwhile, the Nationals’ struggling bullpen has been overworked lately as they dropped their third consecutive game, matching a season high. With few options available in the bullpen, they turned to Romero, even though he has struggled lately. Romero declined to speak to the media after the game.
“It’s a bad series of events,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “You can’t bring it back, because there’s not a whole lot you can do right now. We’re trying just about everything you can do. We just have to come out and play better tomorrow.”
Swanson recorded a multi-hit game for the third time in the past four days and reached in each of his four plate appearances as his batting average moved above .200 for the first time this season. But he also made some key defensive contributions. He went into the hole to rob Jayson Werth of a leadoff single in the fifth and aided closer Jim Johnson’s perfect ninth with a nifty play on Adam Lind’s leadoff grounder.
Taylor notched a one-out double in the third inning and scored from second base when Swanson whiffed on the barehanded play he had to try in an attempt to prevent the speedy Trea Turner from reaching on an infield single. Freeman’s absence with a fractured wrist was felt two batters later when Bryce Harper’s two-out grounder eluded Jace Peterson, who had never played first base before Wednesday. Peterson’s miscue allowed a pair of unearned runs to score against Dickey.
Bartolo Colon will be aiming to win a second straight start when Atlanta and Washington resume this series Saturday at 3:10 p.m. CT. Colon won in Toronto on Monday, but he has a 8.44 ERA over his past five starts.

It was a new day but the same story for the Sounds on their trip through California. The Sounds powered their way to another victory, this time a 6-0 victory over the Sacramento River Cats on the back of a pair of home runs to continue their explosive month of May.

In the month of May the Sounds (19-19) have cranked 35 home runs, which is more than any team in professional baseball. Through the first five games of their current eight-game road trip the Sounds have launched 13 long balls.

Northern California native, Paul Blackburn (2-4, 3.89) posted his best outing of the season Friday night. The 23-year-old kept the River Cats (15-25) hitless through four innings and surrendered just a pair of base knocks in his six innings of shutout baseball. Blackburn kept the River Cats off balance all night long as they struggled to make solid contact.

For the fifth consecutive game the Sounds used the long ball to claim an early lead. Friday night it was Renato Nunez doing the damage. Matt Olson reached on a two-out error by Sacramento’s Jae-Gyun Hwang and Nunez made the River Cats pay by depositing a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left center field to give the Sounds a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Eight batters stepped up to the dish in the fourth inning as the Sounds tacked on four runs to give Blackburn a comfortable 6-0 lead to work with. Joan Gregorio issued back-to-back free passes to lead off the frame and Nashville capitalized. Catcher Ryan Lavarnway launched a three-run bomb over the left field fence for his fourth home run of the season. Later in the inning Jaycob Brugman continued his torrid pace with an RBI single that extended his hitting streak to seven games.

Tucker Healy (1-1, 1.13) and Tyler Sturdevant combined to shut the door on the River Cats with three combined shutout frames.

For the Sounds it was the second shutout of the season. Their last shutout came in an 11-0 victory at Round Rock on May 2.

The Sounds play game two of their four-game set in Sacramento tomorrow night against the River Cats at Raley Field. Right-hander Chris Bassitt (1-0, 4.00) starts for Nashville against left-hander Michael Roth (2-3, 4.54) for Sacramento. First pitch is slated for 9:05 p.m.

Karson Young lands her long jump in the 2016 TSSAA state track meet at MTSU

Six Lady Raider track athletes traveled to Rhea County on Monday for the Sectional Track meet with the berths in the state track meet on the line.  Four members of the 4x800M relay team, along with Karson Young and Sarah Pearson competed in a total of 6 events.

The 4x800M relay team of Emily St. John, Makenzie Webb, Chloe Haggard, and Emilee Roberson clocked a time of 11:14.57 for a 7^th place finish.  That time was not good enough to advance to the state meet.  Coach Nathan Wanuch was complimentary of the team saying: “I’m really excited about the future of this team, as every member has at least 2 more years of competition and made big improvements to their times this season.”

Sarah Pearson, who has already qualified for the state meet in the pentathlon, also qualified in the 300M hurdles with a personal record time of 47.70 to finish in 2^nd place.  In the 100M hurdles, Pearson ran a season best time of 16.47 as she finished in 5^th place.  That time was not good enough to qualify for the state meet in the 100M hurdles.

Karson Young had an incredible day as she was a perfect 4 for 4 in qualifying.  In the 100M hurdles, Young ran a time of 16.25 for a 3^rd place finish.  In the high jump, Young jumped a season best 5’ to finish in 2^nd place.  In the long jump, Young leaped 16’11” to finish in 4^th place and in the triple jump, Young jumped a distance of 34’ 5 ¾” for a 2^nd place finish.  All 4 finishes were good enough to advance Young to the state meet.

The state meet begins on Monday at MTSU’s Dean Hayes Track.  Pearson will compete in the pentathlon on Monday beginning at 10 AM.  The jumps and hurdle events will take place on Thursday beginning at 9 AM.  To see a complete schedule, you can visit the TSSAA website at: http://tssaa.org/2017-tssaa-state-track-meet-schedule/

To see a complete rundown on all events, you can check out the times at: http://tn.milesplit.com/meets/260595/results/526823/formatted#.WRzuuvkrLIU