Category: Sports

CCMS running back Marshall Haney(#12 in red) (Photo by John StClair – www.JohnStClairPhoto.com

Despite a 4 touchdown performance from Marshall Haney, the Coffee County Middle School Red Raider football team fell on Tuesday night in Shelbyville 50 to 28 to the Harris Eagles. The Raiders grabbed an early lead but three scores by Harris in the second quarter and another touchdown at the start of the second half put the Raiders in a deficit from which they could not recover.
Coffee County took the opening drive of the game down the field as Haney carried the ball over for the touchdown. The missed extra point left the score 6 to 0. Harris took a short lead at the end of the 1st quarter, 8 to 6, before Haney added his 2nd touchdown to make the score 12 to 8.
In the 2nd quarter, Harris scored on the first play of the quarter and then twice more in the final 2:30 of the half to take a 28 to 12 lead into the half. Harris added 2 more scores in the 3rd quarter and led 42 to 12 entering the 4th quarter. In the 4th, Haney added a pair of touchdowns and a pair of extra points.
The loss drops Coffee County to 0 and 3 on the year and 0 and 2 in conference play. The Red Raiders return to the gridiron on Tuesday when they travel to Winchester to take on South Franklin. Kickoff is set for 6:30 PM.

The Westwood soccer team stepped out of conference on Tuesday for a match in Winchester with South Franklin. South Franklin used a goal late in the first half to power them to a 3 to 0 win over the Lady Rockets.
Westwood keeper Alana Coker stopped 11 shots in the first half, but a South Franklin goal in the 27th minute put the Lady Rockets in a 1 to 0 halftime hole. South added goals in the 39th and 42nd minutes to hand the Lady Rockets their 2nd straight loss. Westwood’s record now stands at 1 and 2 on the season and 1 and 1 in conference play.
The Lady Rockets will travel to Fayetteville on Thursday for a match with the Lincoln County combined team. That non-conference friendly gets underway at 5 PM.

Along with distancing himself from the nagging ailments that hampered him over the past two months, Julio Teheran fueled the five-run third inning that soured Edwin Jackson’s homecoming and propelled the Braves to a 7-3 win over the Padres on Tuesday night at Turner Field.

Teheran scattered six hits, surrendered two runs and notched eight strikeouts over seven innings en route to his first home win of the season. The All-Star hurler aided his best start in more than a month by opening the five-run third with a double — one of the six hits Jackson surrendered in the inning. Dansby Swanson chased the Padres’ veteran with a single that accounted for the first of his three RBIs.
Jackson, an Atlanta native who pitched for the Braves last year, allowed five earned runs and seven hits over 2 2/3 innings — his shortest start of the season. Oswaldo Arcia who has played for three other Major League teams this year produced his first home run as a Padre when he hit a two-run shot off Teheran with two outs in the fourth inning.
Teheran entered the game with a Major League-low average run support of 2.9 runs per game, but Swanson did his part to increase this figure as he notched the last of the four RBI singles Atlanta recorded in the third inning and also provided some insurance with a two-run double in the fifth inning. The highly-regarded shortstop entered Tuesday with just one RBI through his first 39 career plate appearances.
Arcia’s towering fourth-inning blast was his seventh of the year, as he capitalized on a grooved 1-1 fastball from Teheran. At 40 degrees, Arcia’s blast had the fourth highest launch angle on a Padres home run this season. Only Alex Dickerson and Ryan Schimpf (twice) were higher.
As Teheran struck out two of the first three batters faced and limited his damage to Arcia’s home run, he provided further indication he was just shaking off rust in the two previous starts made since returning from the disabled list with a right lat strain. His fastball sat between 92-94 mph and he seemed to regain a feel for his slider as he notched his highest strikeout total (8) since June 14.
In his first game back at Turner Field, former Brave Christian Bethancourt exited Tuesday’s game early after he strained his left intercostal muscle in the top of the fourth. If Bethancourt’s injury requires a disabled list stint, it’s likely the Padres would call upon Hector Sanchez from Triple-A, instead of their catcher of the future, Austin Hedges. They’ve spoken repeatedly about getting their top youngsters experience in the Pacific Coast League playoffs, and if Hedges remains at Triple-A until Sept. 15, the Padres would gain an extra year of team control.
Matt Wisler will oppose his former organization when Atlanta resumes this three-game series on Wednesday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Wisler was acquired in the multi-player trade that sent Justin Upton to San Diego before the 2015 season The young hurler returned to the Majors last week and flirted with a no-hitter while completing eight strong innings in Arizona.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that contest as we will join the Braves Radio Network immediately following the Ryan Sulkowski Show tonight.

Daniel Gossett tossed seven strong innings and the Nashville Sounds drilled three home runs in an 8-2 win over the Iowa Cubs in front of 6,384 fans Tuesday night at First Tennessee Park.

Fresh off a promotion from Double-A Midland, Gossett allowed two runs on six hits in his Sounds (82-56) and Triple-A debut. He retired eight of the final nine batters he faced and threw 91 pitches on the night.

After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the second inning, Nashville blasted three homers to back Gossett’s performance. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Bryan Anderson all homered in the win.

They quickly erased the deficit with a five-run second inning highlighted by Chapman’s two-run blast.

Colin Walsh started the inning with a walk, and Rangel Ravelo was hit by a pitch. Drew Rucinski issued his second walk of the inning to Anderson loading the bases with nobody out.

The free passes came back to hurt Rucinski when Josh Rodriguez lined a two-run single to right field to give the Sounds a 2-1 lead. A wild pitch brought home the third run of the inning before Chapman launched the first homer of the night to extend the lead to 5-1.

Gossett allowed a run in the top of the fourth on a run-scoring double but the Sounds got it right back when Olson hit a mammoth homer to deep right field to make it 6-2. It was the 17th of the season for the Sounds’ first baseman.

Gossett went on cruise control and shut down the Cubs after the double in the fourth.

Anderson’s home run came in the eighth inning when he hit a 1-0 pitch from reliever Corey Black to center field for his third homer of the season.

Sean Doolittle worked a scoreless eighth inning and Aaron Kurcz fired a scoreless ninth to close out the win for Gossett.

Every player in the Sounds lineup had at least one hit. Olson and BJ Boyd had multi-hit games for Nashville.

The Sounds have two home games remaining in the regular season.

Game three of the four-game series is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Jesse Hahn (1-6, 3.57) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Jordan Pries (5-3, 5.09) for the Cubs. First pitch is scheduled 12:05 p.m.

Tickets for the 2016 Pacific Coast League playoff dates at First Tennessee Park are now available for purchase at the Nashville Sounds box office and online at www.nashvillesounds.com. The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate.

Senior Savannah Quick tees off on Monday at Willowbrook(Photo by John StClair – JohnStClairPhoto.com)

Senior Savannah Quick tied a school record 4 under par on Monday to lead the Coffee County Central High School Lady Raider golf team to a big win over Cookeville at Willowbrook.  The Red Raiders fought through the heat and some bad luck to finish 32 strokes behind the Cavaliers in the non-region head-to-head matchup.  The girls earned a season sweep over the Lady Cavaliers while the Red Raiders could not avenge a pair of earlier losses to the talented Cookeville boys.

The Lady Raiders improved their record to 27 and 3 on the season with a 143 to 197 win over the Lady Cavs.  Senior Savannah Quick’s 4 under round tied her for the all-time school record interestingly enough with her 2 teammates. Sophomore Ashley Gilliam and senior Sophie Vinson share that record with Quick.  Gilliam added a 3 over 75 on Monday to give the Lady Raiders an 18 hole team score of 1 under par.

Senior John Parigger prepares to hit a fairway shot on Monday at Willowbrook(Photo by John StClair – JohnStClairPhoto.com)

For the Red Raiders, it was a tough day against one of the best programs in the state as they fell 293-325.  Senior John Parigger led Coffee County with a 5 over 77.  Austin Farris shot an 81, Reid Lawrence carded an 83 and Samuel Prater got around in 84.  The loss drops the Raiders’ team record to 31 and 7 on the year with 3 of those losses coming at the hands of Cookeville.

The Coffee County golf teams will be back in action on Wednesday when they play host to the Willowbrook Invitational.  The Willowbrook Invitational will have a field of 27 teams (15 boys and 12 girls) in a strong and deep field of talented golfers.  The shotgun start is scheduled for 9 AM and the public is invited to attend.

BJ Boyd’s single in the bottom of the 11th inning scored Joey Wendle from second base to give the Nashville Sounds a walk-off 3-2 win over the Iowa Cubs in front of 7,450 fans Monday night at First Tennessee Park.

With one out, Wendle hit a bouncing ball up the middle for a single to give the Sounds a runner. His 14th stolen base of the season put him in scoring position.

After Rangel Ravelo worked a walk, Boyd lined a 1-2 pitch from Jose Rosario into left-center field for the game-winner.

The win put the Sounds at 81-56 and a season-high 25 games over .500. It was their 10th walk-off win of the season.

Iowa got on the board first with a single tally in the fourth. Chris Coghlan and Jeimer Candelario collected back-to-back doubles to make it a 1-0 game.

In the fifth, John Andreoli doubled off the right-center wall to drive in Munenori Kawasaki from second to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

The Sounds used a pair of doubles of their own to even the game in the home half of the fifth. With one out, Wendle doubled to right-center to start the rally. Ravelo immediately followed with a double to left-center to trim the deficit to 2-1.

After Boyd bounced out for the second out of the inning, Josh Rodriguez dunked a soft single into right field to score Ravelo with the tying run. Rodriguez has 15 RBI over his last 10 games.

Sounds starter Raul Alcantara allowed two runs on six hits and got a no decision. As did Josh Collmenter who went five innings and allowed two runs for the Cubs.

It stayed 2-2 until the 11th inning thanks to both bullpens. Angel Castro, Bobby Wahl and Eduard Santos combined to throw six scoreless innings in relief for Nashville. Castro went three, Wahl put up a zero in the ninth and Santos earned the win after two frames.

Wendle went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and has seven multi-hit games over his last nine contests.

The Sounds have three regular season home games left at First Tennessee Park.

Game two of the four-game series is scheduled for Tuesday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Daniel Gossett makes his Triple-A debut for the Sounds against right-hander Drew Rucinski (6-14, 6.03) for the Cubs. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for the 2016 Pacific Coast League playoff dates at First Tennessee Park are now available for purchase at the Nashville Sounds box office and online at www.nashvillesounds.com. The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate.

Alontae Taylor(file photo)

Despite a 277 yard rushing performance from Alontae Taylor that included 4 touchdowns, the Red Raider football team fell 54 to 30 to Pope John Paul II on Friday night in non-region football action in Hendersonville.  The homestanding Knights raced out to a 34 point first half lead thanks to three touchdowns in the 2^nd quarter.  Taylor had 3 of his 4 touchdowns in the 4^th quarter as the Raiders rallied late in an attempt to erase the deficit.

Taylor finished the night with 29 carries for 277 yards and the 4 rushing touchdowns.  Alontae was also 1 for 2 passing for 9 yards.  Colton Prater was 5 for 8 through the air for 32 yards and 1 interception.  Andrew Mahaffey was the leading receiver as he had 3 catches for 26 yards.

The loss drops the Raiders record to 1 and 1 on the year.  Coffee County travels to Smyrna on Friday night as they open region play against the Bulldogs of Smyrna High.  That game will kick off at 7 PM, Thunder Radio begins coverage with the Friday Night Thunder Pregame Show at 6:00 PM

The first multihomer game of Joe Panik’s career and an eight-run seventh inning on Sunday led the Giants to a 13-4 victory over the Braves and their first series win at AT&T Park since the All-Star break.

“It’s great to take a series here; it’s great to take any series,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “We haven’t had many of those since the break. It’s good to get one.”
The Giants, who are a Major League-worst 14-26 in the second half, kept pace with the National League West-leading Dodgers and have now won three of their last four games.
While Madison Bumgarner didn’t return entirely to form, the ace left-hander provided the Giants with his first quality start since Aug. 13. He didn’t have to pitch perfectly, as the offense broke out, totaling four triples and four home runs. Panik crushed a solo home run in the second and added a two-run shot in the fourth.
“The past couple weeks I’ve felt like myself again,” said Panik, who is batting .339 in his last 16 games. “It was a combination of getting some good counts [where] I could be aggressive, and not missing. I put some good swings on those pitches.”
Denard Span also hit a solo home run in the fourth before the Giants sent 14 batters to the plate in the seventh. The Giants had three triples in the inning, a San Francisco-era record.
Seven players had RBIs for the Giants, who entered Sunday averaging 3.1 runs in their last seven games.
“It was just one of those days,” said Conor Gillaspie. “I think we all needed that.”
San Francisco recorded 11 extra-base hits for the first time since July 2, 2002. This marked just the seventh time since 1913 the Braves allowed as many as 11 extra-base hits in a game. Atlanta starter Aaron Blair set the tone as he surrendered five earned runs, including three home runs, in four innings.
“It got out of hand there, but to be in the game that long against Bumgarner, we played good baseball for six innings,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Everything just kind of unfolded there in the seventh.”
The Giants entered Sunday ranked 29th in the Majors in home runs, but bucked the trend with four homers in the series finale. In addition to Panik’s two and Span’s one, Eduardo Nunez smashed a solo shot in the seventh to give the Giants their third four-plus-homer game this season.
“The ball was flying today,” said Bochy. “It’s always good to get home runs; we don’t get a lot of them. It’s good to see them break out, get some confidence and hopefully some mojo here with this offense.”
Added Gillaspie: “I’ve never seen so many home runs hit here; that’s pretty rare.”
Long before the Braves’ bullpen surrendered five extra-base hits, Blair set the tone as he made his first start since being demoted to Triple-A Gwinnett in late June. The right-hander surrendered a pair of home runs to Panik and another to Span while allowing five runs over four innings. The Braves need to figure out how he fits their future, but there is currently some doubt, as he has completed fewer than five innings in six of his past nine starts.
“I’m just trying to get back to where I was at the beginning of the year,” said Blair, who allowed one home run through this season’s first 31 innings and nine home runs over the 23 2/3 innings that have followed.
Ender Inciarte opened the game with a triple and scored on Matt Kemp’s sac fly, then he added a double that put him in position to score on Freeman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning. But there weren’t too many offensive highlights for the Braves, who saw Bumgarner retire 12 straight after putting two on with none out in the first inning.
“I felt good today, even with Bumgarner on the mound,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “The way our guys grind at-bats out and battle guys like that, I felt if we could do our part on the mound and keep the game manageable, we would have a chance.”
It took over 35 minutes for the Braves to record three outs against the Giants in the bottom of the seventh, as San Francisco erupted for a season-high eight-run inning. Brandon Crawford, Jarrett Parker and Gillaspie hit triples, Nunez homered and six players recorded at least one RBI in the inning.
“Our luck is changing a little bit,” Bumgarner said. “The offense really came to life; that’s fun to watch.”
Sunday marked the first time in the modern era that the Giants accumulated four or more home runs and four or more triples in a game. The last team to total four home runs and four triples in a game was the Yankees, on May 6, 1998.
Atlanta heads home to begin a three-game series against the Padres on Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Julio Teheran will attempt to halt his recent woes as he starts the opener. The right-hander has been shaky in the two starts he’s made since missing three weeks with a right lat strain.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast on Tuesday night following our 1st National Bank Hometown SPorts Series broadcast of Coffee County Central High School volleyball.

Matt Kemp launched a three-run home run deep over the center-field fence and Mike Foltynewicz continued his mastery of the Giants this year as the Braves halted San Francisco’s brief winning streak with a 3-1 victory Saturday.

“It always feels good to put your team up, especially coming in here,” Kemp said. “It’s good to quiet the crowd a little bit. They get riled up when they’re up. But if you can get on the board and get them down, they’ll back off you a little bit. Folty pitched an excellent game. We gave as many runs as he needed and he did his thing.”
Foltynewicz allowed just one run in six innings against the Giants in May, and the right-hander reenacted that performance at AT&T Park. Foltynewicz surrendered five hits and made only one costly mistake. Brandon Crawford made him pay for that miscue, lining a solo home run over the left-field fence in the second. But Foltynewicz faced little pressure from the majority of the Giants’ lineup while pitching 7 2/3 formidable innings.
“That’s a tough matchup for anybody, as well as he threw tonight,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He was tough on us in Atlanta, too. He’s got great stuff when he’s on. He’s tough.”
The Giants chased Foltynewicz in the eighth, after Denard Span doubled and Angel Pagan drew a walk with two outs. But Mauricio Cabrera promptly induced a groundout from Joe Panik to get out of the jam. Kemp’s three-run home run, which carried 425 feet, according to Statcast™, in the the fourth proved to be the perfect amount of support.
“I was feeling very good, just one pitch lifted it up,” said Giants starter Albert Suarez, who meant to throw Kemp a fastball low and away. “He put one good swing on it and he hit it far.”
Kemp, a former member of the Dodgers and Padres, now has 23 home runs against San Francisco.
He helped spoil what had been a solid start for Suarez. Only hours after being recalled from the Minors to replace an injured Jake Peavy, Suarez didn’t allow a hit in his first three innings. But the rookie quickly unraveled in the fourth, surrendering a single, double and home run to the first three batters he faced in the inning. Suarez lasted 4 1/3 innings, and due to a 3-2 Dodgers win, the Giants fell two games behind Los Angeles for first place in the National League West.
Foltynewicz paid for the center-cut fastball Crawford drilled for an opposite-field homer in the second inning, but he was otherwise relatively flawless as he retired 15 of the first 18 batters faced. Crawford struck again in the seventh inning with a leadoff double, but the Braves right-hander did not blink as he escaped the inning unscathed. After Span sliced an opposite-field double with two outs in the eighth, Foltynewicz ended his impressive effort with a nine-pitch battle that resulted in the Pagan walk preceding Panik’s groundout against Cabrera.
“A couple starts before this, I might have gotten a little upset [after Crawford’s homer] and then maybe the next guy would have been walked,” Foltynewicz said. “But after that, I just settled down, kept attacking and kept the same game plan. I didn’t shy away from anything there.”
Firing a strike: Filling in for an injured Hunter Pence, Gorkys Hernandez showcased his arm strength in the sixth inning. After Dansby Swanson hit a two-out single to right field with a runner on second, Hernandez threw a strike to catcher Trevor Brown to get Tyler Flowers out at home. Already trailing by two at that point, the throw got the Giants out of the inning unscathed.
Though Kemp’s statistics since coming to Atlanta at the start of August have not been eye-popping, he has lengthened the lineup, provided Freddie Freeman protection and produced some of the power the Braves envisioned. Atlanta was hitless before the fourth inning began with an Adonis Garcia single, Freeman’s double and Kemp’s 26th homer of the season — third in 95 at-bats tallied for the Braves.
“That was a nice short swing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I was very impressed. When he hit it, I thought it was going to score a run, but then I looked up and that thing just kept going. That’s a big strong man. It was almost a perfect swing.”
The Giants struck first Saturday on Crawford’s 12th homer of the season to provide Suarez with an early cushion. But the Giants’ offense struggled throughout Saturday’s game, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“That was the difference in the game,” said Bochy. “We just couldn’t get a key hit. That’s how you win ballgames, and that was missing tonight.”
Aaron Blair will make his first start since June 24 when Atlanta and San Francisco conclude this three-game series Sunday at 2:05 p.m. CT. Blair has spent the past two months with Triple-A Gwinnett. He held the Giants scoreless until surrendering three two-run home runs in the fifth inning of a June 2 start at Turner Field.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as part of the Braves Radio Network beginning at 2 PM.