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Coffee County softball won its regular-season district finale in dramatic fashion Thursday night.

Hosting Warren County, the Lady Raiders broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth and then did just enough to preserve a 2-1 victory over the Lady Pioneers.

The win gave Coffee County a regular-season sweep of its district rival, following a 3-2 win in McMinnville on April 7. It was also the team’s second straight victory following a four-game losing streak.

“It was a battle. Warren County’s got a good team, their pitcher’s really good, but I’m proud of the girls. We’d been on that little skid with the losses and got that win back (Wednesday),” Coffee County coach Brandon McWhorter said. “We just talked about no pressure, just kind of work it one inning at a time. Then Ella (Arnold) comes up with that huge hit in the fifth that jump started us. Once that happened, we felt good about ourselves.”

Coffee County got it going in the bottom of the fifth when Harlow Maychrzak took her base on a walk. Not long after, Ella Arnold came to the plate with two outs and Maychrzak still on first.  Arnold proceeded to knock a line drive out to right field for a triple, bringing Maychrzak home to make it a 1-0 game.

The Lady Raiders gave themselves some additional breathing room in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Haleigh Skipper reached home plate from third after a throw to first base on a fielder’s choice resulted in an error.

Warren County cut the Coffee County lead to one with a run in the top of the seventh on a Ruby Denning double. With the tying run on second, the next two Lady Pioneer at-bats resulted in a line out and a fly out to give the Lady Raiders the victory.

“I hope it motivates us and kind of propels us into next week,” McWhorter said of the win. “It locks us up as the No. 2 seed, so it guarantees us one home game. That’s what we want, we want to be able to play at home as much as we can, so that’s exciting.”

Coffee County finished the game with five hits, led by Arnold with two. Skipper, Cara Newlin and Kamryn Hoback each had one.

Arnold had the team’s lone RBI.

It was another dominant night for Lily Norman in the circle, who struck out 14 batters and held Warren County to five hits, one run and five walks on the way to a complete game.

With the win, Coffee County improved to 16-15 overall and 5-3 within Class 4A District 6 play, second only to Lincoln County. The No. 2 seed Lady Raiders will begin the district tournament next week.

Before the postseason begins, the Lady Raiders will close out their regular-season schedule at home against Blackman Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.