Category: Sports

Giving up 6 unearned runs and collecting only 4 hits is not the recipe to success in high school softball as Coffee County dropped a 9 to 2 decision to Macon East Academy of Montgomery, Alabama on Thursday night as the Lady Raiders celebrated Special Needs Kids Night at Terry Floyd Field. In spite of the outcome, the night did have a special flavor to it as Coffee County Central High School special needs student Victoria Flores sang the national anthem. Then the special needs kids accompanied their favorite player to their defensive position during player introductions. The swell of emotion and fanfare did not seem to faze the talented visitors from Alabama as they plated 2 unearned runs in the first inning helped by

a Lady Raider error. A 5 run eruption in the 4th inning was helped along by a costly Coffee County error coupled with 6 hits from the visiting Lady Knights. Coffee County was able to plate single runs in the 5th and 6th innings as Abby Woods got aboard in the 5th, stole 2nd base and came in to score on a throwing error and passed ball. In the 6th, Haley Hinshaw had a 1 out triple and scored on an RBI groundout by Lauren Tomberlin. Hinshaw had the lone extra base hit for the Raiders as she was named the Thunder Radio player of the game. The Lady Raiders travel to Antioch on Friday for a 5:30 PM game with Ezell-Harding. Thunder Radio will bring you exclusive coverage of that game beginning with the pregame show at 5:20.

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A 7th inning rally came up short on Thursday night as the Red Raider baseball team opened play in the Mountain Valley Tournament with a 5 to 4 loss to the host Yellow Jackets of Grundy County. Three Red Raider errors in the 4th inning helped Grundy County plate 4 runs on 3 hits against Coffee County starter Bradley King. Coffee County answered the 3rd inning rally by the Yellow Jackets when Alan Rob scored on a Cade Giles single in the 4th. Rob came back with an RBI double in the 5th to score Wyatt Day as the Raiders trailed 5 to 2 entering the 7th. Zach Wise led off the 7th with a double and scored on a Gavin Husted single. Grundy County walked in a run before getting the final 2 outs with the bases loaded to end the game. Rob finished the night going 2 for 3 as he reached base on an error and a walk. The Red Raiders travel to Jasper on Friday for a doubleheader at Marion County High School in Day #2 of the Mountain Valley Tournament. Coffee County will take on Marion County at 4 PM and Cumberland County at 8:30 PM.

The CCMS Track teams each got first place finishes on Thursday in McMinnville when they took on Warren Co and North Franklin at Nunley Stadium. The Lady Raiders tallied 64 points and the Red Raiders finished with 41 points on the day as each had strong performances in the field events and relays. Individual and Team medalists were:
Girls
Shot Put: Marissa Douglass – 1st, Marley Perry – 2nd
Discus: Marissa Douglass – 1st, Marley Perry – 2nd
High Jump: Julia Duncan – 1st
Long Jump: Julia Duncan – 1st, Jenna Garretson – 3rd
4 x 100m: 2nd – Macy Tabor, Karie Wooten, Mady Gravitt, Marissa Douglass
1600m: Trava Brown – 3rd, Shelby Watkins – 4th
100m: Marissa Douglass – 1st (Tie)
4 x 200m: 1st – Macy Tabor, Journey Arnold, Mady Gravitt, Willow Hobbs
400m: Ryan Green – 3rd, Jade Arnold 4th
800m: Jasie Willis – 1st, Lexie Hosea – 2nd
200m: Reagan Ellison – 1st, Claire Bryant – 4th
4 x 400m: 1st – Journey Arnold, Emilee Roberson, Emma Singleton, Jade Arnold

Boys (41 pts)
Shot Put: Brandon Jernigan – 1st, Michael DeLong – 4th
Discus: Brandon Jernigan – 1st
High Jump: Blanton Brown – 1st, Hayden Skipper – 3rd
Long Jump: Hayden Skipper – 2nd, Jalen Morris – 3rd
4 x 100m: 1st (Tie) – Blanton Brown, Landon Crabtree, Jalen Morris, Hayden Skipper
1600m: Larson Meltzer – 2nd, Ethan Welch – 4th
4 x 200m: 1st – Blanton Brown, Landon Crabtree, Jalen Morris, Hayden Skipper
400m: Ethan Beaty – 3rd
4 x 400m: 2nd – Ethan Welch, Jake Melton, Ethan Beaty, Larson Meltzer
The track team is off until April 25th when they welcome the track teams of North and South Franklin to Carden-Jarrell Field. Field events get underway at 4 PM.

The Westwood Lady Rockets and the Coffee County Middle School Lady Raider golf teams finished 1st and 2nd respectively on Thursday in a 4 team match at Bear Trace against North and South Franklin. Elizabeth Brown tied for low scorer honors as she carded a 64 for Westwood. Macie Lawrence finished with a 67 and Brayden Gray shot a 72. For Coffee County, Olivia Lewis shot a 75 and Olivia Howell carded a 76. For the boys, North Franklin had 4 golfers shoot sub-50 rounds to finish ahead of Westwood. Coffee County came in 3rd place. Westwood was paced by a score of 49 from Christopher Robinson. Nicholas Johnson had a 63, Andrew Green shot a 72 and Gavin Prater added a 74. For Coffee County, Logan Hale carded a 52, Isaac Pauley shot a 65, Xavier Bartley had a 74, Keegan Grubbs shot a 79 and Caleb Jarrell shot an 81. The Westwood and Coffee County Middle School golf teams host their first match of the season on Monday when they welcome Tullahoma and Fayetteville to Willowbrook. That match is set to tee off at 4 PM.

The Coffee County Middle School softball team plated a couple of runs in the first inning but could not quell a Tullahoma rally in the 3rd inning as the Lady Raiders dropped a 3 to 2 decision to the Lady Cats in the regular season finale. Ashley Evans led off the 1st inning with a single and scored on an RBI triple from Sarah West. West scored on a groundout by Amanda Mukai to make the score 2 to 0 after 1 inning. In the 3rd, Tullahoma strung together 4 hits and an error to plate 3 runs as the Lady Cats earned a season sweep over Coffee County. West finished with the only extra base hit for the Lady Raiders as Coffee County was held to 5 hits on the evening. The Lady Raiders will now take part in the CTC Conference Tournament that will be held at Coffee County Middle School. Coffee County’s 1st round game will be on Monday at 6 PM as the Lady Raiders will take on White County.

Tied at nil at the half, the Coffee County Middle School soccer team saw misfortune lend a hand in a 3 to 0 loss to Tullahoma on Thursday night at CCMS. The bad breaks started in 33rd minute as Tullahoma was awarded a penalty kick which they drilled home to break the scoring drought. 4 minutes later, Coffee County directed a Wildcat corner kick into the back of the Raider goal to give the visitors a 2 to 0 lead on the own goal. Tullahoma closed out the scoring in the 42nd minute when they took advantage of  a Red Raider error as Coffee County ended up centering a clearing pass right on the foot of the Tullahoma offense. The Raiders will travel to Winchester on Monday for a doubleheader with South and North. The Raiders will take on South Franklin at 5 PM and they take on North at 7 PM.

The Coffee County Central High School JV baseball team swept a doubleheader from Tullahoma on Thursday night by scores of 7 to 3 and 2 to 0. A.J. Rollman pitched Coffee County to the win in the opener and Carlos Medina pitched the shutout in the nightcap to give the JV Raiders their 5th win in a row this year over Tullahoma. The win is also the 7th for the JV Raiders in the last 8 meetings between the 2 schools.

Bryce Harper hit a grand slam for his 100th career homer, while Wilson Ramos also went deep to support Stephen Strasburg as the Nationals defeated the winless Braves, 6-2, at Nationals Park on Thursday afternoon.

Washington swept the four-game series and improved to 7-1.
“I just saw the ball go over the fence,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said of Harper’s first career slam, which Statcast™ estimated at 425 feet. “He was happy, we were happy to get that four-run lead. I didn’t know that was his first slam. I knew that was his 100th home run. We were just happy to take the lead at that time because [Atlanta starter Julio] Teheran was dealing.”
The Braves joined the Twins as the first teams to start a season 0-9 since the 2003 Tigers.
“I would bet out of everybody in here, nobody has been in this situation,” Braves utility man Kelly Johnson said. “It’s uncharted territory. It’s not something you plan for or think about too much. But now that you’re here, you’re going to want to get the first win and have something to celebrate.”
Strasburg pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out seven in his second victory of 2016. Teheran surrendered six runs over seven innings, including homers by Harper and Ramos.
The Braves gave Teheran a 1-0 lead in the third as Nick Markakis singled to left field, scoring Jace Peterson.
But it was all Nationals after that. In the bottom of the third, Washington had the bases loaded with two outs when Harper hit a 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall for a 4-1 lead.
Ramos made it 5-1 an inning later, when he homered to left-center. In the sixth, Ramos drove in his second run, lacing a double that sent Daniel Murphy home.
Harper became the eighth-youngest player to reach 100 home runs. Harper also became the third player in Nationals history — along with Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman — with 100 homers.
“It was awesome. It was my mom’s birthday, so I was able to hit her a homer,” Harper said. “Today was definitely huge. I love these fans, I love this organization. It’s a thrill to do it in front of the home crowd. I was glad I was able to do it here.”
Teheran retired eight of the nine batters he had faced before he got ahead of Matt den Dekker with a 1-2 count before beginning the bottom of the third with a leadoff walk. Chris Heisey and Anthony Rendon notched consecutive two-out singles to extend the inning long enough for Harper to drill his grand slam. Harper has batted .429 (12-for-28) and totaled five homers in his career against Teheran .
“That to me was the biggest plate appearance of the game,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the leadoff walk. “We had scored one run against a tough opponent [Strasburg]. Nothing against den Dekker, but den Dekker is not Harper and we end up walking him. That set up that situation. We had nowhere to put [Harper] and threw the ball and it came back over the middle of the plate.”
Markakis stays hot: Markakis added an eighth-inning RBI double off Felipe Rivero and accounted for the only two runs tallied by the Braves, who had started this series in promising fashion. Markakis notched a two-run double before Max Scherzer notched the first out of Monday’s series opener, and Atlanta tallied two more runs in the second. But the visitors totaled just three runs over the series’ final 34 innings.
Williams Perez will take the mound when the Braves open a three-game series at Marlins Park on Friday at 6:05 p.m. CT. Perez lasted just 4 2/3 innings during Sunday’s season debut against the Cardinals. Atlanta will try to avoid starting 0-10 for the first time since 1988.  Thunder Radio will join the broadcast of that game immediately following Lady Raider softball on Friday.

A four-run eighth inning by the Colorado Springs Sky Sox doomed the Nashville Sounds in a 7-5 loss Thursday night in front of 5,202 fans at First Tennessee Park.

Nashville had a 5-3 lead when Andrew Triggs took over in the eighth. He struck out Hernan Perez to start the inning, but then allowed an infield single to Jake Elmore.

Garin Cecchini followed with a base hit to put runners at first and second. Eric Young Jr. followed with a sharp ground ball just to the right of shortstop Tyler Ladendorf who bobbled the ball allowing all runners to be safe.

The infield single and error came back to hurt when Josmil Pinto singled in a pair of runs and number nine hitter Manny Pina tripled to the center field wall to score two more to give the Sky Sox a 7-5 lead.

Until the eighth inning, the Sounds’ bullpen had a collective 1.95 ERA in the first seven games of the season.

The Sounds loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth only to come away empty handed when Chad Pinder bounced out to third.

Brooks Hall picked up the win for Colorado Springs and Triggs was tagged with the loss, his first of the season. Damien Magnifico worked the final 1 1/3 innings to earn the save.

Nashville built their 5-3 lead on the strength of a season-high 13 hits. Every player in the starting lineup had at least one hit. Ladendorf led the charge with a 3-for-4 night, and Pinder and Jake Smolinski had two hits apiece.

The Sounds begin an eight-game road trip on Friday in Oklahoma City. Right-hander Zach Neal (0-1, 1.80) starts for Nashville against right-hander Jeremy Kehrt (1-0, 0.00). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Season ticket memberships are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

The Motlow Bucks overcame an eight-run deficit and notched their third consecutive victory when they beat visiting Calhoun Community College 14-13 Tuesday afternoon at the Driver Baseball Complex.

The Bucks (17-27, 4-14) swept the visiting Cumberland University JV 9-7, 15-4 on Sunday. Motlow will continue its home stand when Tennessee Community College Athletic Association (TCCAA) rival Southwest Tennessee visits this weekend. The Bucks and Saluqis will play a nine-inning contest Friday at 2 p.m. and a pair of seven-inning games Saturday beginning at noon.

Calhoun jumped out of the gate Tuesday, scoring three in the first, one in the second and four in the third. Bucks starter Drew Jarrett lasted 2.1 innings and allowed eight runs, although only one was earned. Shaq Thompson relieved Jarrett, pitching 1.2 innings and giving up four runs.

Down 8-0 heading to the bottom of the third, the Bucks stormed back with seven runs in the inning. Aaron Hobbs opened with a single, Josh Bankston, J.D. Robertson and Spencer Mossburg all drew walks, scoring Hobbs. Dylan Stark then singled in Robertson and Bankston. Hunter Nance drove in Mossburg with a single, Peyton Meeker singled to drive in Stark, and Brody Thomasson’s sacrifice fly scored Nance. After Meeker advanced to second on a passed ball, Camron Harper drove him in with a single. After three innings the Bucks trailed 8-7.

Calhoun came right back with four more runs off Thompson in the top of the fourth, but the Bucks matched them with four in the bottom of the inning. Nance and Harper both singled in runs and Meeker drove in Nance with a double. After four innings of play the Bucks trailed 12-11.

Cameron Isley (1-0) then took the mound for Motlow and shut the door on the Calhoun offensive onslaught to get the win. In his four innings of work he allowed only six hits and one run with two strikeouts. JR Gilmer secured his second save of the season by pitching a perfect ninth inning.

Down 13-11 in the bottom of the sixth, the Bucks tied the game when Meeker reached on an error and advanced to second. He scored as Thomasson also reached on an error and he eventually scored on Hobbs’ RBI single. Mossburg drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning after Camron Harper was hit by a pitch, Hobbs singled and Carl Parker singled to load the bases for Mossburg.
The Bucks slammed five home runs during their doubleheader sweep of Cumberland. Meeker hit one to raise his team-leading homer total to 10 and his RBI count to 43. Mossburg, Thomasson, Stark and Parker each hit round trippers during the victories.

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