Category: Sports

Corey Seager’s first-career three-homer game propelled the Dodgers to a 4-2 win over the Braves on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers only had five hits, but four of them left the yard, as Trayce Thompson, Seager’s roommate, added to Seager’s three solo shots with one of his own.
“One of those things, it didn’t matter where it was thrown, it looked like it was on a tee,” Seager said. “That’s a good feeling when you’re hitting, I hope it will be that way tomorrow.”
Braves starter Julio Teheran, who allowed Thompson’s homer and two of Seager’s, had allowed a total of two in all of May. Those were the only hits Teheran allowed in his 5 2/3 innings.
“It was [Seager’s] night,” Teheran said. “We’ve got to give him the credit.”
Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda had one of his best starts since his four-game, one-run stretch to begin the season, allowing two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts. After allowing runs in the first two innings, Maeda allowed just one hit for the remainder of his appearance. His 107 pitches were also his MLB career high.
“There was a fastball down for a strike, and I think he got his release point back,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Before that, his fastball command was in and out. Slider was inconsistent. Kenta, what he showed in New York, he’s got a lot of heart. He’s going to find a way to compete and give us a chance to win.”
Seager entered Friday night’s game leading the Dodgers in home runs and extended his lead with his second multi-homer game of the season. If you combine Seager’s 12 homers with Thompson’s nine and the eight from their other roommate, Joc Pederson, the household of young Dodgers has seven more homers (29) than the entire Braves team (22).
“I honestly didn’t know Corey had 12 or Trayce had 9, I’m just so caught up in the day to day and winning games,” Roberts said. “Would you have said that at the beginning of the season? Probably not. To get that production offensively from these young guys is great. That production is going to come from other guys as well.”
The three solo home runs accounted for the only hits Teheran surrendered during an effort that left him with a 1.89 ERA over his past nine starts. The Braves right-hander held the Dodgers hitless through the first three innings and then saw Seager hit his first pitch — a changeup — of the fourth inning over the right-center-field wall.
“Even though I didn’t miss with my pitches, they were homers,” Teheran said. “I’m just going to put that game away and concentrate on my next start.” More >
Maeda wasn’t just strong on the mound; he showed why he won four straight gold gloves in Japan’s Central League. Teheran was trying to bunt Kelly Johnson over from first and popped the ball up down the first-base line. Maeda raced over to make the catch, then immediately fired to first to double off Johnson.
“Very confident with my ability to field the position,” Maeda said through an interpreter. “I was going to try get the guy out at second base and I was aiming for that.”
Adonis Garcia’s first-inning RBI single provided an early lead for the Braves, who notched three more singles before Maeda recorded the second out of the second inning. But after Mallex Smith’s RBI single gave Atlanta a 2-0 lead, Maeda retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced.
“I would have liked to have kept adding on runs, but they just kind of shut us down there after the [second] inning,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We had a nice flow going and scored those quick runs.”
Teheran became the first pitcher in Braves franchise history to allow exactly three runs and three hits, each of which was a home run, while completing at least five innings.
Dodgers southpaw Adam Liberatore took over the seventh inning for Maeda and ended the inning perfectly. All but one of his 22 appearances have been scoreless this season, good for a 1.08 ERA.
Bud Norris will start in place of Mike Foltynewicz when this series resumes on Saturday at 9:10 p.m. ET. Foltynewicz was placed on the disabled list with a bone spur in his right elbow. Norris posted a 8.74 ERA in the five starts he made before being removed from Atlanta’s rotation.  Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast on the Braves Radio Network beginning at 8 PM with the pregame show.

Friday night’s scheduled finale of a four-game series between the Nashville Sounds and Round Rock Express has been postponed due to rain at First Tennessee Park.
The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday, June 19 at First Tennessee Park. Game one will begin at 1:05 p.m. with game two scheduled to begin approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. Both contests will be seven innings.
Fans may exchange their tickets for Friday’s game at the Sounds’ box office for a ticket of equal or lesser value, pending availability, to any remaining 2016 home game. Fans that possess tickets for the originally scheduled game on June 19 can now enjoy both games of the doubleheader with their current tickets.
The Sounds begin an eight-game road trip on Saturday as they head to Omaha to take on the Storm Chasers. Starting pitchers have yet to be determined.

A group of four Coffee County Central High School students traveled to Dayton, TN last weekend to take part in the Tennessee Bass Nation High School Championship.  The team of Brayden Majors and Hunter Sanders placed 4th out of 117 teams with a total catch of 15.70 lbs.  Majors and Sanders were assessed a 1 lb penalty for a having a dead fish. Brian Majors captained the boat for Majors and Sanders.  The team of Shannah Frame and Isaac Turner also fished in the state tournament on Lake Chickamauga. They didn’t have much success, catching several small fish.  Their boat was captained by Shannon Frame.

It was an excellent showing for the Coffee County Youth Bass Club in their first year. The club was founded by Phillip Petty and Dewayne Meadows.  Members of the team will be guests on a future episode of the Coffee Coaches Show.  For more information about the Coffee County Younth Bass Club, check out their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Coffee-County-Youth-Bass-Club-1227052340639230/?fref=ts

Westwood tennis coach Justin Winton is putting on a Tennis Clinic on Monday through Friday,  June 6th-June 10th.  The clinic will be held at the Fred Deadman Park.   The camp is open to ages 8 through 18.  Cost is  $40.00/week and $30.00/week for siblings.
There is a growing interest in learning to play tennis in Manchester due to the new middle school teams in Coffee County and Manchester City, and the high school team is growing. We’re trying to build a tennis community in Manchester, and that means getting students to start playing when they’re young.
Two morning sessions to choose from: 8:30 -10:00 A.M. and 10:00-11:30 A.M. The early session will be centered on beginners and the later session will be for intermediates. Students will receive instruction on how to improve their forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads, and serves. They will hit hundreds of tennis balls over the week and have fun doing it. Beginners will learn how to keep score and play matches.
If you don’t own a tennis racquet, don’t let that stop you from attending.  Coach Winton has several quality racquets that students can borrow. You need to wear clothes and shoes that you feel comfortable running around in, and you need to bring water.

For more information, and to see a signup sheet, go to: http://www.thunder1320.com/event/tennis-clinic-registration/

Madison Bumgarner helped preserve a scoreless tie, then acted decisively to break it. The San Francisco left-hander worked 7 2/3 innings and homered to launch a six-run uprising in the fifth inning, leading the Giants to a 6-0 decision over the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field on Thursday afternoon.

Bumgarner delivered the first of three two-run homers for the Giants in the fifth. Joe Panik and Buster Posey also went deep as San Francisco improved to 4-3 on its three-city, 10-game trip.
“Talent-wise, I feel like this may be the best team that I’ve now been a part of,” said Bumgarner, who pitched for the Giants’ World Series-winning clubs of 2010, ’12 and ’14. “The thing is, most of our young guys have been through the fire already. They know what it’s about. There are a few that don’t, but enough that do to show them the way.”
The Braves, who are 6-23 at home, generated little offense against Bumgarner (7-2), who yielded four hits while walking two and striking out 11. Braves starter Aaron Blair (0-4) lasted four-plus innings, giving up all three of San Francisco’s home runs before recording an out in the fifth.
“Especially in that fifth inning, I don’t know what happened,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker about Blair’s poor fastball command. “He just kind of lost location, and when he missed, it was a two-run homer. It just kind of got away from us right there.”
The Giants pushed a runner to third base in both the first and fourth innings, but Blair thwarted the scoring chances both times to maintain a scoreless tie. Denard Span led off the game with a walk and reached third with two outs after stealing second and advancing on a groundout. Blair escaped the inning unscathed with a flyout. Three innings later, Blair surrendered a ground-rule double to Brandon Belt before ending the fourth with a groundout and a strikeout.
Posey grew up in Leesburg, Ga., roughly a three-hour drive from Turner Field. He was too busy playing in his own leagues to attend many Braves home games. But with the Braves moving to a suburban ballpark next year, Posey derived some satisfaction from participating in the Giants’ last game here.
“It’s pretty neat,” Posey said. “I grew up watching hundreds of games [on television]. It’s nice to leave with a win, and the homer’s icing on the cake.”
Chase d’Arnaud continued his hot hitting at the plate in the bottom of the first inning when he dropped a single into left field for the Braves’ first hit of the game. He finished 2-for-4 at the plate, and his batting average now stands at .351 in 19 games this season. With Gordon Beckham on the disabled list, d’Arnaud’s bat and his versatility in the field might be even more valuable.
“It still hurts right there, because Gordon was playing so well and was kind of right in there in the middle of everything we were doing,” Snitker said. “But it’s nice to have a guy who has that versatility that’s on your club, has already been here, is part of the team and can help out like that.”
When Bumgarner, Panik and Posey all hit two-run home runs in the Giants’ six-run fifth inning, it marked the second time this season that the Giants hit three home runs in one inning. They also did it on Opening Day at Milwaukee on April 4 (Span, Panik and Posey in the eighth).
Before Thursday, the Giants had never hit three two-run home runs in the same inning, according to STATS Inc. This was the fourth time the Giants have had three multi-run home runs in the same inning. The last time was May 7, 2007, against the Mets in the fifth inning.
Atlanta will begin its six-game road trip on Friday against the Dodgers at 9:10 p.m. CT. Right-hander Julio Teheran, who was hampered by a blister on his right foot in his start against the Marlins on Sunday, will take the hill in search of his first career win against the Dodgers in what will be his sixth regular-season start against them.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network beginning with the pregame show at 8 PM.

The Nashville Sounds scored six runs in the first three innings on their way to an 8-5 win over the Round Rock Express in front of 7,488 fans Thursday night at First Tennessee Park.

Three consecutive singles opened the scoring in the bottom of the first for Nashville (33-21). Jaycob Brugman and Chad Pinder collected back-to-back singles to set the table for Renato Nunez who laced a base hit down the left field line to make it 1-0.

After a fielder’s choice for the first out in the inning, Ryon Dealy belted a double into the left-center gap that scored Pinder and Andrew Lambo to give the Sounds an early 3-0 lead.

Round Rock (29-24) came back with a pair of runs off Sounds’ starter Zach Neal in the third. A base hit to start the inning by Patrick Cantwell and a bloop single from Brett Nicholas extended the inning for Joey Gallo. The third baseman sent a liner to the wall in right-center for a two-run triple.

Nashville got the runs right back as three walks issued by Kyle Lohse came back to hurt him in the home half of the third. With the bases loaded and two outs, Joey Wendle hit a pop up into shallow left that dropped in between three Express defenders. With the runners moving on the pitch, all three came around to score to extend the lead to 6-2.

Bruce Maxwell got in on the scoring act when he launched a solo homer to right field to lead off the fourth.

The Express scratched across another run against Neal in the fifth before he departed with a 7-3 lead. With the win, he improved to 6-1 on the season.

Three relievers combined to shut down Round Rock the rest of the way. Aaron Kurcz tossed two scoreless innings and Daniel Coulombe pitched the eighth.

The Express brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth in the form of Doug Bernier, but Tucker Healy bucked down and struck him out to finish the win.

Since May 14, Nashville has won 17 of their last 19 games. They’ll attempt to win their fifth consecutive series in game four of the set on Friday.

The series and homestand finale is set for Friday night at First Tennessee Park. Left-hander Dillon Overton (4-4, 3.99) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Chi-Chi Gonzalez (1-5, 5.80) for the Express. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

CCMS Football coach Bryan Morgan

The Coffee County Middle School will have a pair of new coaches in the upcoming year following the shuffling of some of their current staff. Brock Freeze will become the new head baseball coach in the coming school year as he leaves the football sidelines as head coach. Bryan Morgan will be promoted to the head football coach’s position after serving as an assistant.
Morgan takes over the Red Raider football team after serving as an assistant coach under Brock Freeze for the last 5 years. Morgan has been in charge of the offensive and defensive lines and has also been in charge of special teams. Morgan also served as an offensive coordinator during spring practice for Coffee County Middle.
“I am very excited” said Morgan when Thunder Radio spoke to him on Wednesday night. “I want to do whatever I can to help the high school program” added Morgan as he plans to adapt the middle school offense to fit the system of Coffee County Central.
Morgan’s work begins on Monday(June 6th) as the Raiders will begin non-contact summer workouts. The team will work out from 8:30 to 10:30 on Mondays and Thursdays at the CCMS practice field. The workouts are open to all prospective CCMS football players.
If you need more information, contact Coach Morgan at: morganbryan@k12coffee.net Coach Morgan will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show here on Thunder Radio. The Coffee Coaches Show is aired live from AL White Ford/Lincoln beginning at 10 AM.

Brock Freeze talks to his CCMS football team following a win (File Photo)

Brock Freeze will move from the football sidelines to the baseball dugout. Freeze, who has served as the head football coach for 10 years, has always had a passion to coach baseball. Freeze helped coach the Tullahoma freshman baseball team while doing his student teaching and served as the head softball coach at CCMS for 4 years shortly after the inception of softball at CCMS.
Freeze has not finalized his assistant coaches yet, but looks forward to talking with last year’s staff after tryouts are completed. Freeze will hold tryouts for next year’s team on Saturday at the CCMS field. Incoming 6th & 7th graders will tryout from 10:00am to 1:00pm while incoming 8th graders will try out from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. There will be a makeup tryout on Thursday, June 9th at 6 PM at CCMS. Players trying out must have a copy of a current physical. If you have any questions please contact coach Brock Freeze at: freezeb@k12coffee.net

Freddie Freeman hit his third career walk-off homer to complete a comeback that provided the Braves a 5-4, 11-inning win over the Giants on Wednesday night at Turner Field. Freeman hit the first pitch Derek Law threw in the bottom of the inning over the right-center field wall.

“This team never gives up,” Freeman said. “That’s the name of the game. You’ve got to keep grinding at-bats and that’s what we did tonight.”
• Freeman, Braves hope walk-off HR is spark
Giants right-hander Albert Suarez pitched effectively in his first Major League start, allowing three runs over five innings. Suarez, who started in place of the injured Matt Cain, also notched his first career hit — a sixth-inning infield single that would have served as the game-winning hit had the Braves not taken advantage of some miscues that allowed them to erase a one-run ninth-inning deficit.
Brandon Belt gave the Giants an early lead with a two-run homer in the fourth inning and the Giants capitalized on some defensive mistakes that influenced the other two runs Williams Perez surrendered over 5 2/3 innings. Perez was taken off the hook when San Francisco closer Santiago Casilla hit Adonis Garcia with a pitch and then allowed Garcia to score on a wild pitch following Nick Markakis’ bloop single.
“That was an ugly run — hit a batter, bloop, wild pitch — that’s a tough way to give up the lead,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We just couldn’t put it away. We had a couple of chances to get a little bigger [lead]. Still, you like your chances. We had it set up with Casilla out there. They just fought back. Give them credit. It happens.”
Giants right fielder Hunter Pence reinjured his right hamstring as he tried to beat out a fourth-inning grounder. Pence returned to San Francisco’s lineup last Friday at Colorado after injuring the same hamstring kept him out of the lineup for six consecutive games.
Pence is scheduled to undergo an MRI early Thursday morning. He answered multiple questions about his physical condition by repeating, “We’ll see. I don’t know.”
Joe Panik’s fifth-inning sacrifice fly accounted for an unearned run that came with some assistance provided by Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski and second baseman Kelly Johnson. Pierzynski was unable to corral Gregor Blanco’s leadoff bunt in front of the plate. Kelby Tomlinson followed with a potential double-play chopper that Johnson fumbled, allowing the Giants to put two on with none out.
“[Perez] was really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Like I said, the guys came in, picked each other up again and did a good job of holding the game right there to give us a chance.”
Belt’s second-inning single accounted for the Giants’ first hit before his fourth-inning, two-run homer off Perez opened the scoring. Belt has 10 hits in his last 19 at-bats with two homers, four doubles and five RBIs in that stretch. He’s also batting a team-high .347 (33-for-95) on the road.
Ender Inciarte was fortunate that his fourth-inning triple fell out of a hustling Denard Span’s glove and set the stage for Gordon Beckham’s RBI groundout. Mallex Smith followed suit when he highlighted Atlanta’s two-run sixth inning with his fourth triple within a span of 44 at-bats. Inciarte’s triple accounted for the only ball the Braves hit out of the infield through the first five innings.
The Braves had lost each of the previous 30 games in which they trailed after eight innings. The Giants had won 27 of the previous 29 game in which they led after eight innings.
Atlanta has won four of the first nine games played during this homestand, which they entered with a 2-17 record at Turner Field.
Atlanta will send Aaron Blair to the mound for Thursday afternoon’s series finale. In his first start back from the Minors, the right-hander surrendered two runs and struck out a career-high five batters in Saturday’s 7-2 win over the Marlins. First pitch is set for 11:10 a.m. CT.

The Nashville Sounds furiously rallied for six runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game, but ultimately dropped a 15-9 decision to the Round Rock Express in front of 4,781 fans Wednesday afternoon at First Tennessee Park.

The loss snapped a season-long nine game winning streak and trimmed the American South Division lead to 2.5 games over second place Round Rock.

Trailing 8-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, Josh Rodriguez sparked a rally with a base hit up the middle off reliever Chad Smith. He retired Jaycob Brugman for the first out of the inning before Chad Pinder walked.

With one swing of the bat, Renato Nunez cut the deficit in half with a three-run homer to left. It’s was his 10th of the season and second in as many days.

Ryon Healy kept it going with a solid single up the middle. Andrew Lambo popped out for out number two, but the inning continued when Express third baseman Joey Gallo threw away a grounder allowing Healy to score and Matt McBride to reach safely.

Three pitches later, Matt Olson tied the game with a two-out, two-run homer to right field. The inning ended after six runs came across and with the game even at 8-8.

The good vibes didn’t last long as Round Rock answered back with a seven-run top of the 10th inning. The big hit came off the bat of Brett Nicholas who belted a grand slam off Ryan Brasier to give the Express a 14-8 lead.

It’s only the second loss for the Sounds since May 14 – a dominant 16-2 stretch.

Nashville (32-21) out-hit Round Rock (29-23), 15-12, led by Jaycob Brugman’s 4-for-6 game. He started with a pair of singles, tripled in the seventh and doubled in the 10th.

Lambo extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a base hit up the middle in the fourth. Pinder extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a 2-for-5 day at the dish.

Brasier was tagged with the loss to drop his record to 3-2 and Smith was credited with the win despite allowing the six runs in the ninth.

Game three of the four-game series is scheduled for Thursday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Zach Neal (5-1, 2.53) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Kyle Lohse (2-0, 4.08) for the Express. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Jake Peavy celebrated his 35th birthday by completing his most impressive start of the season and setting the stage for Denard Span to deliver a triple that proved decisive for the Giants during Tuesday night’s 4-0 win over the Braves at Turner Field.

Span’s sixth-inning RBI triple provided the only run necessary for the Giants, who have won 16 of their past 19 games. Peavy surrendered just one hit as he faced the minimum over seven scoreless innings. The veteran right-hander held the Braves hitless until Tyler Flowers opened the bottom of the fifth inning with a single.
“If he hadn’t turned 35 today, I might have left him out there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “Seriously, he did a beautiful job.”
Aware of Peavy’s birthday, Span approached him hours before the game and inquired about his age. “He said he was 35,” Span related. “I said, ‘That’s it?'”
Braves starter Matt Wisler surrendered four hits and three runs over seven-plus innings. The young hurler exited after allowing a Gregor Blanco double that fueled San Francisco’s three-run eighth inning.
“I was just looking at the box score and what his line did, and I said, ‘He was a lot better than what that showed,'” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just a shame we couldn’t put a few runs up for him and just give him something to work with.”
It was easy to foresee Peavy’s collapse after he had to hustle around the bases in the sixth, a trip that began when he broke from first base on a steal attempt as Span connected for his triple. In fact, Adonis Garcia led off the Braves’ half of the inning with a drive to right field that Hunter Pence caught a couple of steps in front of the wall. But Peavy recovered by striking out Wisler and retiring Mallex Smith on a fly ball.
Peavy threw only 10 pitches in the sixth.
“That was a big inning for him, to get us back in the dugout,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said.
Wisler faced the minimum through the first five innings and retired the first two batters he faced in the sixth before surrendering a two-out single to Peavy, who promptly scored on Span’s triple. The Braves right-hander had also surrendered a key two-run single to Brewers starting pitcher Wily Peralta during Thursday night’s loss to Milwaukee.
“I threw the ball exactly where I wanted [to Peavy],” Wisler said. “He just got a broken-bat single. There’s nothing you can do about that, and then the two-seam [fastball] to Span didn’t get all the way out to where it needed to be and he put a good swing on it and got a triple.”
Span is beginning to heat up offensively. He’s 10-for-23 (.435) in his last six games, helping the Giants increase their offensive production. He has recorded three multiple-hit games in this stretch. Span’s final hit, a single that he chopped over the head of second baseman Kelly Johnson, who was playing in, drove in a run during San Francisco’s three-run eighth.
Smith’s attempt to record a bunt single with two outs in the third inning was denied by Posey, who quickly corralled the ball near the third-base line and fired a perfect strike to retire the speedy outfielder. Posey’s quick reaction helped limit the Braves to one hit in a home game for just the fifth time since Turner Field opened in 1997.
“If you’re performing for everybody on your birthday, that’s pretty good. … You’ve got to tip your hat to him. He was aggressive and spotting everything up. We hit a couple of balls hard but not that many to even threaten.” — Snitker on Peavy’s performance
Albert Suarez will make his first Major League start Wednesday as San Francisco continues its four-game series against Atlanta with a 6:10 p.m. CT encounter. Atlanta will counter with Williams Perez, who pitched effectively in San Francisco last year and then endured a rough outing against the Giants at Turner Field. Perez has allowed two earned runs or fewer in three of the four starts he’s made since returning from Triple-A Gwinnett.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network beginning at 6 PM.