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Coffee County softball opened the week with a road win Tuesday evening.

Taking on Warren County, the Lady Raiders took control in the top of the second inning and held on to beat the Lady Pioneers 3-2.

“I’m really proud of them. That was a gutty performance. Warren County’s a really good team, they’ve got a good pitcher,” Coffee County coach Brandon McWhorter said. “We knew it was gonna be a tough game coming in. We made enough plays to win and then we thankfully shut them down when we needed to, so I’m very proud of the girls.”

Trailing Warren County 1-0 after the first inning, Haleigh Skipper came to the plate in the top of the second with Harlow Maychrzak on second base and Madison Waller on first. After a wild pitch advanced both runners to third and second, Skipper connected on a ground ball for a double and brought home both Maychrzak and Waller to make it a 2-1 Coffee County lead.

The Lady Raiders expanded their lead in the top of the third inning when a Lily Norman grounder got Bailey Hale home from second base.

Warren County was able to cut the lead to 3-2 on a solo home run from Ruby Denning in the bottom of the fourth, but Coffee County did not give up another run through the game’s remainder.

With the win, Coffee County moved to 13-10 overall and 3-1 in the Class 4A District 6 standings. This was the Lady Raiders’ third straight win in district play, with their only loss thus far coming against Lincoln County in Manchester on March 24.

The two teams are slated to face off again in Fayetteville on Thursday.

“That’s the first round of district games, so Thursday we go round two. That’s where we want to see the improvement,” McWhorter said of the Lincoln County rematch. “How do we do against the opponents the second time around. Can we show improvement, can we get better each time, so we’ll get that started on Thursday.”

Norman was a force for the Lady Raiders in the circle, striking out 10 and holding Warren County to two hits, two runs and two walks across all seven innings.

At the plate, Norman also had two of Coffee County’s five hits. Skipper, Cara Newlin and Yeidy Cruz each had one hit.

Skipper brought in both of the team’s two RBI as well.

First pitch for Thursday’s district game at Lincoln County is scheduled for 7 p.m.