Category: Sports

The Braves’ era at Turner Field is over. So, too, is the Tigers’ opportunity at the postseason.

Once again, Justin Verlander was stingy with the season on the line. This time, however, his opposing starter was stingier. And after 12 strikeouts from Braves ace Julio Teheran in a 1-0 win Sunday, the Tigers were eliminated from playoff contention.
Detroit needed a win Sunday along with a loss from either the Blue Jays or Orioles to extend its season in hopes of earning an American League Wild Card spot. The first part was the challenge in front of them, and Teheran answered, sending Tigers batters chasing high fastballs through the late afternoon shadows. His 12 strikeouts tied his season high, a day after Braves rookie starter Aaron Blair struck out a career-best 10 Tigers over six innings.
“I know he’s very tough on right-handed hitters,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said of Teheran, “and unfortunately we’re a right-handed lineup. But we have good right-handed hitters. He had his stuff working today. Really, the story was him.”
Verlander did his part to answer, but Freddie Freeman’s first-inning sacrifice fly stood as the difference. Verlander struck out eight over seven innings, finishing his renaissance season with a 3.04 ERA. It was the Tigers’ third 1-0 loss this season with Verlander on the mound.
“There was a lot of pitching and a lot of history in this ballpark,” Freeman said. “For it to go down as a 1-0 game between Julio and Verlander, that was a fitting ending for this ballpark.”
Teheran entered Sunday’s game with a 1-6 record and a 3.84 ERA in 17 home starts this season. The right-hander made the most of his final outing at Turner Field, though, allowing only three hits over seven scoreless innings. The Tigers threatened to score in the second, when Teheran issued a one-out walk to Nick Castellanos to put runners on first and second. But Atlanta’s ace escaped the jam unscathed with a strikeout and a lineout. Only two more runners reached against Teheran, who reached 95 mph with his fastball and finished with a 3.21 ERA.
“[I was feeling] a lot of emotions,” Teheran said. “My friends, the crowd and the emotions you’re feeling in that place right now, it was unbelievable. I think I came with my best stuff, and I wanted to do this. Everybody was excited, and I’m glad I had my stuff. I couldn’t make it any better than that.”
The pitching duel left Verlander victimized by Freeman’s sacrifice fly, but he avoided a second such tally with some strategic pitching in the seventh after Adonis Garcia singled, stole second and reached third on a James McCann throwing error. Verlander struck out Matt Kemp on a offspeed pitch that ducked off the plate, intentionally walked Nick Markakis, then sent a 96-mph fastball past Tyler Flowers for a called third strike.
“I know I pitched well,” Verlander said, “but it doesn’t make me feel any better right now.”
After Jose Iglesias opened the eighth with a double, Jose Ramirez struck out pinch-hitter Victor Martinez, then induced an Ian Kinsler liner that shortstop Dansby Swanson snared before throwing to second base to double up Iglesias. The Tigers loaded the bases to begin Saturday’s eighth and saw that threat end when Swanson began a nifty double play after diving to grab J.D. Martinez’s sharp grounder.
“Huge defensive play,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker about Swanson’s defensive gem. “I have a feeling that’s going to be the norm with that kid. The bigger the situation, the bigger he’s going to come up. You feel really really good when he’s out there.”
Said Kinsler: “I didn’t hit it great, but anytime you can hit a ball on the line, you think it’s got a chance to find a hole. It just didn’t.”
The Tigers had one last chance to extend their season once Miguel Cabrera hit an opposite-field single off former teammate Jim Johnson with one out. Johnson struck out J.D. Martinez on three pitches, all fastballs, then recovered from a 3-1 count to Justin Upton with back-to-back called strikes, including a full-count fastball over the plate for the 15th strikeout of the afternoon. The Tigers were held to three runs over their final two games.

CHS Soccer seniors left to right Karson Young, Lexie Roberts, Holli Smithson, MaKenzie Anderson and Caitlyn Moore

For the 2nd time in 3 weeks, the Coffee County Lady Raider soccer team defeated Community on Thursday night at the Raider Soccer Field. The Lady Raiders used 4 first half goals to dispatch the Viqueens early on their way to a 5 to 0 win on Senior Night.
Coffee County got a quick goal from Eliza Masters in the 4th minute off an assist from Lexie Roberts. Masters found a wide open Jenna Garretson in the 13th minute to extend the lead to 2 to 0. Caitlyn Moore punched in a goal in the 32nd minute off a rebounded shot from Garretson before adding a 2nd goal in the 2 minutes later off a feed from Masters. In the 2nd half, Coffee County got another goal from Garretson in the 43rd minute.
Following the match, CHS seniors Holli Smithson, MaKenzie Anderson, Lexie Roberts, Caitlyn Moore and Karson Young were honored in their final regular season game as Lady Raiders.
Up next for the Lady Raiders is the District 8AAA Tournament which is tentatively set to begin the week of October 9th. District tournament times and pairing will be released next week so check back often with Thunder Sports for updates.

Aerial Williams

Coffee County Central High School volleyball team ended the regular season on Thursday night on a sour note as they dropped a 3 set district decision to Lawrence County. The visiting Lady Cats swept Coffee County by set scores of 22-25, 24-26 and 16-25. The loss ends the Lady Raiders regular season with a record of 19 and 14 and a district record of 8 and 4.
Coffee County was led in kills by Aerial Williams who had 9. Alliyah Williams led the Lady Raiders in blocks with 3. Bailey Morgan had 17 assists and Tyana Fenton had 13 digs while Kaylee Skipper and Aerial Williams each had a pair of service aces.
The Lady Raiders will open district tournament play at home on Tuesday when they play host to either Franklin County or Shelbyville at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. That match is set to get underway at 6 PM and Thunder Radio will broadcast it live as part of the 1st National Bank Hometown Sports Series. A win Tuesday would advance Coffee County to the District semifinals on Thursday at Lawrence County.

The Westwood Rockets football season came to a close on Thursday night at Fayetteville as the Rockets dropped a 46 to 12 decision to the Tigers. Trailing 8 to 6 at the end of the first quarter, Westwood saw Fayetteville explode for a pair of touchdowns in the 2nd quarter to race out to a 24 to 6 halftime lead.
Fayetteville added three 2nd half touchdowns to put the game out of reach. The Rockets got a 1st quarter touchdown from Henry Garcia as he raced 90 yards on a sweep for Westwood’s first score. Quarterback Will Partin ran 50 yards on a keeper in the 4th quarter for the Rockets final score. The Rockets finish the season with a record of 3 and 6.

Jacob Rutledge of CCMS Cross Country in action on Wednesday

After rescheduling their meet from Tuesday due to facility conflicts, the CHS and CCMS Cross Country teams hosted a small meet on Wednesday afternoon on the campus of the Raider Academy. Both the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders captured the top 3 finishes in both the boys and girls races. The CCMS runners also finished high in the final home meet of the year.
For the Coffee Middle runners, Jacob Rutledge had the best finish in the boys’ race as he crossed the line in 12:49 for a 2nd place finish in the 2 mile race. Ethan Welch was 5th at 13:16 and Jalen Selvage was 15th at 16:07. The 2 Lady Raider runners broke the tape at the same time as Jasie Willis and Shelby Watkins tied for 7th place at 19:11.
For the Lady Raider high school runners, Sarah Pearson led the way as she finished the 5K course in 22:10. Emily St. John was 2nd at 22:54 and Makenzie Webb finished 3rd at 23:38. Byanka Woods finished 6th (26:48), Shyanna Rader was 7th (30:11), Jasmine Farrar was 8th (30:28), Keisheal Norton was 9th (31:46) and Kelsey Selvage was 10th (32:06)

Jasie Willis(left) and Shelby Watkins(right) of CCMS Cross Country in action on Wednesday

For the Red Raiders, James Lynn finished first with a time of 18:45 as he barely nipped teammate Bradley Kishpaugh who was a step behind at 18:47. Andrew Godwin finished 3rd at 18:58 and Andres Cavalie had a 4th place finish at 19:10. Other top 10 finishers for the Raiders were: Larson Meltzer in 7th (20:15), Reuben Chaput in 8th (20:41), Renato Ayala in 9th (20:41) and Neil Slone in 10th (22:11).
The cross country teams are back in action on Tuesday when they travel to St. Andrews-Sewanee for a meet. That meet is expected to get underway at around 4.

Dansby Swanson recorded a pair of extra-base hits through the first three innings and Matt Kemp provided Mike Foltynewicz more cushion with a two-run home run that accounted for just a portion of the damage the Braves produced against Adam Morgan in Wednesday night’s 12-2 win at Turner Field.

After Swanson tripled during a two-run second inning and doubled during a three-run third inning, Kemp highlighted a four-run fourth with his 34th home run of the season. The abundance of support was more than enough for Foltynewicz, who allowed one run and two hits over five innings. That lone run came with the assistance of two wild pitches thrown in the third inning.
“Guys just kept putting good at-bats up,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It was kind of like everybody did something to contribute. It was just another high-energy, get-after-it game. It was really good.”
Morgan’s attempt to finish this season on a positive note quickly soured as he allowed a career-high nine runs and 10 hits over five innings.
As the Braves rolled toward toward their ninth win within their past 10 games, Freddie Freeman singled in the sixth inning off Phil Klein to extend his hitting streak to 30 games, which now stands as the longest recorded in the Majors this season. He also extended his on-base streak to 46 games, which matches Washington’s Jayson Werth for the longest produced this season.
The Phillies have allowed 63 runs in the past six games. Phillies veterans Ryan Howard and A.J. Ellis called a players-only meeting afterward. There might be only four games left in the season, but they still felt they needed to speak up.
“It’s important to try and finish strong,” Howard said. “It’s easy to cash it in with four games left, you’re not playing for a playoff spot or anything like that. You just want to be able to win and go out on a high note. You just want to finish on a positive note, and we’ve got four games to try and do that.”
There’s no doubt the Braves’ lineup has been positively affected by Kemp, who doubled during the third inning and then drilled the fourth-inning home run, which traveled a projected 423 feet with a 107-mph exit velocity per Statcast™. The veteran outfielder has collected 11 home runs over the 52 games played since joining the Braves on Aug. 2.
Morgan had a 3.69 ERA in his previous seven starts, but he could not carry his recent success into his final start of the season. He allowed 10 hits, nine runs, two walks and a home run and struck out four in five innings to finish the season 2-11 with a 6.04 ERA.
“It’s not the way that I wanted to go out,” Morgan said about his season’s final start. “I made a lot of strides in the right direction and right there, that was not me. Going into the offseason you try to take the good and run with it and try to make improvements. I’m not going to go in the offseason sulking. I’m not going to go into the offseason thinking that I’ve got to be somebody that I’m not coming into Spring Training.”
There were times this season when Foltynewicz looked like a potential ace and other times when he provided the reminder he still has not yet made 40 career starts. The former applied during this impressive effort against the Phillies, who saw the right-hander consistently spot his 98-mph fastball and aggressively attack with both his curveball and slider. Foltynewicz did not show any rust as he made his first start since being struck in the left calf by a line drive on Sept. 12.
“The stuff was live early on,” Foltynewicz said. “I was hitting my spots. My curveball and slider were probably at the top of where they have been all year. We kept them off balance a lot during the early innings with a lot of curveballs and sliders. They were swinging over [the] top of them, and we were getting some fly balls.”
Klein allowed two runs in the seventh inning, making it 12 consecutive Phillies relievers to make an appearance and allow at least one earned run. The streak started after David Hernandez threw a scoreless seventh inning Saturday in New York. It ended when Frank Herrmann pitched two-thirds of a scoreless inning following Klein in the seventh. Jeanmar Gomez then allowed a run in the eighth inning.
“It’s all about pitching,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. “Pitching keeps you in games. That’s why we won 70 games. Now we’re not getting the pitching.”
The Braves will finish last in the National League East, but they recorded winning records against three division opponents — the Phillies, Marlins and Mets — this season.
Right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (12-10, 3.78 ERA) makes his final start of the season and possibly the final start of his one-year Phillies’ career on Thursday night at 6:10 CT against the Braves at Turner Field. Hellickson will be a free agent after the season.  Atlanta will counter with Josh Collmenter, who will be making his third start since being acquired from the Cubs on Sept. 14. The right-hander has allowed four runs across both of his starts for the Braves.

CHS Volleyball seniors(Left to Right) Aerial Williams, Elaine Srofe, Kaylee Skipper, Baylee Nester, Bailey Morgan, Sarah Hollis, Morgan Hickerson, Rachel Henley and Laneva Bell

Celebrating Senior Night in the most appropriate manner, the CHS volleyball swept Franklin County on Tuesday night at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. The Lady Raiders used 35 kills and 21 aces to drop the Rebelettes 25-9, 25-17 and 25-20. The win improves Coffee County’s record to 19 and 13 overall and 8 and 3 in district play.
Senior Aerial Williams had another splendid performance as she had 7 kills to move into 2nd place all time in Lady Raider volleyball history for a career. The senior now has 325 kills. Williams also added a block to improve her career blocks record to 117. And if that was not enough, Williams added 5 aces. Kaylee Skipper led the Lady Raiders in aces with 6. Baylee Nester led Coffee County in both kills, with 10, and digs with 5. Bailey Morgan led Coffee County in assists with 22.
Coffee County will conclude the regular season at home on Thursday night when they take on Lawrence County at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym. That district contest will get underway at 6 PM.
You can download the broadcast at: http://www.thunder1320.com/audio/HOMETOWN092716.mp3