Cade Giles
Facing Columbia for the 2nd time in 5 days, the Red Raider baseball team had no answers for Lion pitcher Chris Short as they fell 6 to 1 on Monday night in the District 8AAA tournament. A pair of errors in the 2nd inning by Coffee County helped Columbia build a 3 to 0 lead and that was enough offense to eliminate the Raiders in the quarterfinals of the District 8AAA tournament.
Coffee County, which struck out 11 times on Thursday against Short, went down on strikes 9 times on Monday night in the loss. Cade Giles hit an absolute monstrous home run for Coffee County in the top of the 3rd to cut the deficit to 3 to 1, but another pair of Columbia runs put too much pressure on the Red Raider offense. Coffee County was held to 5 hits as Noah Anderson had a double and Nathaniel Tate was 2 for 3 on the night.
After the game, Coach Martin expressed his admiration for this year’s team, including his senior class. “I will miss these seniors and wish that I had them for another year” said Martin. He went on the say that he appreciated their contributions to the rebuilding of the Red Raider program. “From where we started to where we ended the season showed tremendous strides of improvement. WE improved the culture, the work habits and the mental approach to the game; plus we got to feel what winning was like.” The loss ends the season for first year head coach David Martin as Coffee County finished in 4th place in the district.
