Category: Sports

Brianna Jones hopes every outing could go as well as Wednesday, as Jones tossed a shutout to carry the Coffee County Lady Raiders to a 3-0 victory over District 8-AAA foe Columbia Central.
Jones racked up 16 strikeouts in the Lady Raiders and allowed only 3 hits.
Offensively Shelby Giles led the way as she was 2 for 2 and scored a run.
Thursday night the 12-1 Coffee County Lady Raiders will host Shelbyville at 7pm. Hear the game starting at 6:50pm on Thunder Radio.

A 2 run home run in the top of the 7th inning and an RBI fielder’s choice in the top of the 9th for Columbia lifted the Lions to a 5 to 4 come from behind victory over Coffee County on Wednesday night at Powers Field. The loss spoiled a tremendous pitching performance by Trace Friedlein. Friedlein got the start for the Raiders and threw 6 strong innings giving up 3 hits and 2 runs with 7 strikeouts. The Raiders did not go down without a fight as they got runners in scoring position in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings but could not get the game winning hit. Friedlein, Zack Wise, Gavin Husted and Deandre Wakefield all had 2 hits for Coffee County as Zach Holmes, Wakefield and Husted had doubles on the night. Wise was named the Gateway Tire and Service Center player of the game as he added an RBI in the Raiders 3 run 4th inning and an outfield assist in the 6th inning
Download Thunder Radio’s broadcast
The Raiders travel to Clarksville for a tournament on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, the Raiders take on Clarksville Northwest at 4:00 PM and Rossview at 6:30 with both games being played at Rossview. On Saturday, Coffee County will play at Clarksville High School as they take on Hopkins County, KY at 11:00 AM and Clarksville at 1:30.

A young par of Westwood tennis teams continue to improve, but match wins are still hard to come by for the first year program.  On Tuesday afternoon, the Rockets hosted Lewisburg in middle school tennis action at Fred Deadman falling 7 to 2 in both boys and girls competition.  Coach Justin Winton was complimentary of the effort of his young squad especially Xander Jones and Matthew Miller who got wins in boys play, and M.E. Spradley and Jessica Barrera who notched girls wins.  Winton was also encouraged by 3 close match losses as his teams continue to mature.  The Rockets will travel to Shelbyville on Wednesday, weather permitting, for boys and girls matches beginning at 4:00 PM

The Westwood Rockets soccer team continued their strong play on Tuesday night with a 4 to 0 win over Webb at the rain-soaked pitch of Dyer-Bouldin Field.  Leo Botello had another hat trick for Westwood and Samuel Workman added the 4^th goal.  Workman was also credited with 2 assists.  Cailan McLean continued his strong play in net with his 3^rd shutout in the last 4 games.  With the win, Westwood improves to 7 and 2 and 3 and 0 in conference play.  on the season.  The Rockets travel to Fayetteville on Thursday to take on Riverside Christian.  That match will kick off at 5:00 PM

District 8-AAA baseball action continued on Tuesday for the Coffee County Red Raiders as they traveled to Columbia.
The Lions jumped to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back as they knocked off the Raiders 5-0. Starting pitcher Daniel Gassman took the loss and JP Duncan had two hits to lead the offense.
Coffee County 1-6 in district play return home on Wednesday for a 6:00 PM game with the Lions. Thunder Radio will have the broadcast starting at 5:50pm.

Coffee County High School Senior Cody Howes last week signed to continue his education and athletic career at LaGrange College in Georgia.
Last year Howes for the Raiders had 725 yards rushing, 219 yards receiving and scored 12 touchdowns. Howes was also a kick returner that included a 93 yarder for a touchdown. He was named All-District 8-AAA and also won the Thunder Radio/Gateway Tire and Service Center Horizon Award.

In his junior year, Howes a 2-sport athlete, was named the District 8-AAA Defensive Player of the Year in soccer.
LaGrange College competes USA South Conference in NCAA Division III. The Panthers open the 2015 season Sept. 5 at home against Birmingham-Southern. LaGrange will play in Tennessee in October on Halloween day at Maryville College.
Lagrange is the oldest private college in Georgia and is located in the west central part of the state.

After two successful seasons as men’s head basketball coach at Motlow College, Matt Sligh left to become an assistant coach at Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo.
Sligh was hired at Motlow during the summer of 2013 after former Motlow head coach Jerry Nichols accepted the head coaching position at fellow Tennessee Community College Athletic Association member Southwest Tennessee. Sligh had spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., and had recruited multiple Motlow players to WJC.
He became the 11th coach for the Bucks since the school began playing men’s basketball in 1969, and inherited one of the nation’s most successful junior/community college programs over the previous half-dozen years. Sligh has upheld that winning tradition, following a 14-14 campaign in his first season with last year’s 23-6 team that finished second in the conference during the regular season and advanced to the semifinals of the TCCAA tournament.
Sligh will join upcoming junior guard Dequan Miller who recently signed with Missouri State.
Motlow is now searching for its 3rd head coach since the end of the 2012-13 season.

Facing the challenge of playing 3 games in 5 hours, the Westwood Rockets fought off exhaustion to finish in 2^nd place in the inaugural Red Raider Invitational.  The Rockets finished the day with a record of 2 and 1 on the day and finish with 22 points.  Harris Middle was the lone team to beat Westwood as they won the tournament with 26 points.

Westwood opened the day with a pair of back to back games.  The Rockets got a strong effort in a 4 to 0 win over Madison Academy of Huntsville at 10:15 AM in their first game.  The Rockets got a pair of goals from Leo Botello and single goals from Juan Penaloza and Andres Cavalie.

This set up a match up with Harris at noon.  The Eagles of Harris got 4 first half goals as they dominated the time of possession against a tiring Rockets defense.  The deficit should have been larger except for the sparkling play of Westwood keeper Cailan McLean who had 3 remarkable saves in the first half to finish with 6 for the match.   Leo Botello got both Westwood goals on a pair of great individual efforts.  In the first half, Botello hit a beautiful sliding toe punch just inside the 18 yard box at the 13^th minute.  In the 2^nd half, he headed home a corner kick from Penaloza.  Westwood’s defense shutout the Eagles in the second half, but Westwood ended up falling 4 to 2.

The Rockets got a short break until 3:00 when they took on Algood.  The Putnam County Redskins played a physical contest but Westwood was able to use their speed and excellent passing to take a 3 to 0 lead into the half.  Juan Penaloza got the scoring started for Westwood as he found the back of the net in the 5^th minute.  Leo Basurto, who did not start the match due to cramps, came off the bench to score goals in the 25^th and 28^th minutes to give Westwood a 3 to 0 lead at the half.  Rocket keeper Cailan McLean did not allow an Algood goal in the 2^nd half as he got his second shutout of the day leading the Rockets to a 3 to 0 win.   Westwood will play host to Webb on Tuesday night at Dyer-Bouldin Field.  That match will kick off at 5:00 PM.

Coffee County Middle School’s Scottie Duke came up one out short in his bid to pitch a no-hitter on Saturday against Boyd Christian School at CCMS.  Duke, who finished with a 2 hitter, pitched the Raiders to a 12 to 1 win as he finished the day with 4 strikeouts in the 5 inning game.  The Raiders scored in all 4 of their at-bats as they used a 6 run explosion in the 3^rd inning to but the game out of reach.  Coffee County sent 12 hitters to the plate in the frame that lasted nearly 45 minutes.   Trace Bryant led off the game with a triple on the first pitch he saw and added a 2 RBI single in the 2^nd inning to pace Coffee County offensively.  Bryant also scored 3 runs for the Raiders.  Colton Kerber had a triple and a single with 3 RBI on the day, Andrew Mahaffey had a double and a single with an RBI and Bryson Hullett was 2 for 2 with a walk and 3 runs scored as well.  With the win, Coffee County completed a 3 and 0 week to run their record to 6-1-1 on the season.  The Raiders are back in action on Thursday as they play host to South Franklin in a 5:00 PM conference game.