Despite a dismal day at the plate, Coffee County’s Lady Raiders managed to get the tying run into the batter’s box with no outs in the bottom of the 7th Tuesday.
But that’s as far as they got. Nolensville’s Rylan Smith struck out 3 straight to close the game and give Nolensville a 3-1 win over the Lady Raiders in the opening round of the TSSAA Spring Fling State Tournament.
THIS GAME WAS BROADCAST LIVE ON THUNDER RADIO – CLICK HERE FOR THE BROADCAST REPLAY
The last 3 strikeouts for Smith in the circle gave her 19 in the game. Only two Lady Raider outs were recorded in any other fashion – pop ups in the first and third inning hit by Willow Carden.
Despite Smith’s dominance, there was a glimmer of hope in the seventh. Jalyn Moran reached on a pop up dropped by Lily Dale at third base. Then a double by Kaitlyn Davis to the left-center gap scored a run and gave CHS a chance, but Smith sat down the next three batters in order.
Davis’ double was the only hit of the game for CHS. Prior to that, a runner had not gotten past first base. Madison Pruitt reached in the third on an error.
The game was tied 0-0 in the sixth when an error jump-started a Nolensville 3-run inning. A single and back to back doubles followed the error to put the Knights up 3-0.
Kaitlyn Davis was tagged with the loss – striking out 5 over 7 innings and allowing 3 hits.
Coffee County falls to the loser’s bracket with the loss and will now play Farragut at noon Wednesday at Starplex Field #1 in Murfreesboro. Farragut lost to Arlington. If the Lady Raiders win, they will play again at 6 p.m. at Starplex Field 2 against the loser of Henry County and Green Hill. A loss ends the season.
All games will be broadcast live on Thunder Radio WMSR AM 1320, 107.9 FM, Manchester Go app and thunder1320.com.
