Coffee County baseball’s hopes of a deep region run and perhaps a trip to the state tournament were dashed Saturday in Cleveland.
After a tough extra innings loss to Walker Valley Friday night in the opening round of the Region 3-4A tournament, the CHS Red Raiders needed to win two games Saturday in order to advance to the state sectional round this week. But Shelbyville – who finished runner up to the Raiders in the district – jumped all over Coffee County in the first inning and never let up Saturday, beating the Raiders 10-4 and ending their season.
The Eagles banged out 12 hits in the win – including 5 straight to start the game and take a 5-0 lead after the first inning. The Raiders helped out with 4 defensive errors through the afternoon.
THIS GAME WAS BROADCAST LIVE ON THUNDER RADIO. BROADCAST REPLAY HERE.
The Eagles put up another big inning in the third, dropping a 4 spot that the Raiders were never able to recover from.
CHS scored 2 apiece in the first and fourth innings but was never able to put the tying run to the plate after the bottom of the first.
Carter McKenzie was hit with the loss – allowing 4 runs on 4 hits.
Jayden Fellers, Cole Pippenger and Brady Daugherty finished out the game on the mound. Pippenger settled things down. The sophomore right-hander scattering 3 hits and 1 earned run over 4.1 solid innings of relief. But Coffee County couldn’t muster up enough offense against Shelbyville’s pitching staff. The Raiders touched up Eagle starter Jaquai Beverly for 4 runs on 8 hits over 5 innings. But it was the Eagle bullpen that slammed the door. Carson Williams and William Bobo combined for 2 innings of 2 hit ball and didn’t allow a run.
Caleb Moran hit a solo home run for the Raiders in the loss. Aiden Robertson and McKenzie pitched in RBIs at the plate and Pippenger doubled.
The loss ends the season for the Raiders at 19-12. Coffee County won the District 6-4A tournament championship a week ago – beating Shelbyville 3-2 on Sunday, May 7.
Shelbyville will play Bradley Central Sunday afternoon for the region runner-up spot and a trip to the state sectional this week. Walker Valley won the region title, beating Coffee County and Bradley Central – both extra inning games.
The two losses in the region tournament leave the Raider baseball program without a region tournament win since 2010 – when they won a Region Championship and eventually reached the TSSAA Spring Fling in Murfreesboro.
The program will graduate seniors Aiden Robertson, Ashton Ferrell, Caleb Moran, Carter McKenzie, Charlie Pierce, Cole Bryce, Dayne Crosslin, Jacob Holder, and Nolan Jernigan.
