E
DITOR’S
NOTE:
Coverage of this past Monday’s district tournament game against Cookeville can be found online at www.manchestertimes. com and in next week’s print edition.

Coffee County softball appeared to be in the driver’s seat through four innings of Friday night’s Class 4A District 6 tournament matchup in Manchester. Hosting Warren County, the Lady Raiders had built a 7-0 lead by this point, but the game was not over yet.

The Lady Pioneers went on to turn it around, ultimately dealing the Lady Raiders a 9-7 loss to open postseason play.

After getting on the board in the bottom of the first inning when Cara Newlin scored on an Ella Arnold sacrifice fly, the Lady Raiders continued to push ahead in the bottom of the second. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Newlin sent a line drive out to center field to bring home Maggie Montgomery from third base and Taylor McBride from second.

Montgomery came to the plate once again in the bottom of the third inning, doubling on a line drive out to left and sending Harper Jernigan home to make it a 4-0 game.

Coffee County’s hot start continued in the next inning, starting with a pair of runs for Newlin and Arnold on Raelyn Wainwright’s at-bat. Haleigh Skipper brought in one more run before the inning’s conclusion, grounding into a fielder’s choice to allow Wainwright’s courtesy runner Bella Hennessee to score.

Warren County’s turnaround began in the top of the fifth, starting with Ruby Denning delivering a ground ball to right field for an RBI single. Two at-bats later, Ceilee Gudat sent a moonshot over the center field fence for a three-run home run home, cutting the Lady Raider lead to three. Warren County went on to add two more runs before the side was retired, sending Coffee County into the bottom of the inning clinging to a 7-6 lead.

After three straight Lady Raider strikeouts in the bottom of the fifth, Warren County tied it up in the top of the sixth inning when Zara Laxson scored on a Cortlyn Porter single.

After Coffee County came up empty once again in the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Pioneers took control in the top of the seventh with a pair of runs on a Lola Wells double. The Lady Raiders were unable to cut back into it in the bottom of the inning and finished the game down by two.

The loss dropped Coffee County to 16-16 overall and 5-4 within the district.