Sports and Outdoors

Marshall Medical Center claimed another Babe Ruth League title Tuesday night with a solid 6-4 win over its archrival Elks. The dynamic mound duo of Zack Graves and Logan Courtemanche did it again for MMC (7-1) with Graves starting the game and pitching three innings before being relieved by Courtemanche in a tie game. Courtemanche came on and tossed three innings of one-hit baseball to pick up the win before the pair got some seventh inning help from Ashton Grubbs, who earned the save.

Tuesday night’s Babe Ruth League action kicked off with a matchup between A-Plus Collision Center (2-6) and Nichirin (3-6) and the two squads played neck-and-neck the entire game before a late surge by Nichirin sealed a 6-4 win. Ethan Hollis started on the mound for A-Plus and Logan McKnight took the ball for Nichirin. There was no scoring in the first inning and McKnight tossed a 1-2-3 second inning before Hollis ran into some control problems in the bottom of the second inning as he walked Rob Hawkins, Kristian Yanke-Malone, and Hayden Luna to load the bases with one out.

(COLUMBIA, Tenn. – June 19, 2018) - - - Columbia State Community College hosted the Rogers Group, Inc. 22nd Annual J.R. Moon Golf Classic June 8 at the Saddle Creek Golf Club in Lewisburg. “The J.R. Moon Golf Classic had another successful year because of Rogers Group, other community supporters and those teams that came out to play,” said Bethany Lay, Columbia State vice president for advancement and executive director of the Columbia State Foundation. “A driving force behind the scenes is the golf committee that works so hard and so well together.”

The Elks (5-3) pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks in recent history as they trailed Nichirin 7-0 and 9-1 before stealing a 10-9 eight inning win in the Babe Ruth League twin bill nightcap at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg Monday night. Nichirin (2-6) starting pitcher Logan McKnight held the Elks in check over the first four innings, giving up just two runs on two hits, while striking out nine and walking two.

Marshall Medical Center (MMC) moved closer to clinching the Babe Ruth League title with a convincing 8-2 win over A-Plus in the opening game of Monday night’s doubleheader at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg. MMC (6-1) was boosted by strong pitching performances as Logan Courtemanche and Zack Graves combined on a four-hitter with both surrendering a pair of hits apiece and neither allowed an earned run in the contest.

The Elks versus Marshall Medical Center (MMC) has been the longest standing rivalry since the beginning of the Marshall County Babe Ruth League and another chapter was written on Tuesday night at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg as the Elks stole a 4-3 win to hand MMC its first loss of the season. The Elks (4-2) only had two hits in the game, but made the most of three bases on balls and six fielding miscues by MMC (4-1) to pick up the win. Zack Graves went the distance on the mound for MMC and was the tough-luck loser as he only gave up two earned runs, while striking out eight and walking three Elks’ batters.

Nichirin ace Logan McKnight shut down a struggling A-Plus Tuesday night, tossing 3.1 innings of one-hit ball in a 7-3 win at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg. McKnight struck out six and walked three A-Plus batters and the lone base knock he surrendered came on an Ethan Hollis fourth inning double with one out. Daniel Sellars picked up the save on the mound with 2.1 innings of shutout baseball and Sellars also went 2-for-3 at the plate.

Marshall Medical Center (MMC) tightened its grip on first place in the Marshall County Babe Ruth League with an 8-0 win over A-Plus Monday behind a no-hitter on the mound by Logan Courtemanche at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg. Courtemanche pitched all five innings in the shutout victory, striking out eight and walking three.

The Lewisburg Elks Lodge #1990 kept pace with first place Marshall Medical Center with an 11-6 five-inning win over Nichirin in Monday night’s second game of the Babe Ruth League twin bill. The Elks’ T.J. Stinnett remained one of the hottest batters in the league as he posted a perfect 3-for-3 night at the plate with a double, three stolen bases, and three RBIs.

Marshall Medical Center remained unbeaten at 4-0 on the season after coming out on the front end of a 5-4 win over the Elks in Tuesday night’s Marshall County Babe Ruth League action at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Field in Lewisburg. Hits were hard to come by as both teams managed just one base knock apiece, both coming in the third inning with Hayden Lykins for MMC in the top half and Kel Greer for the Elks in the home half of the frame.

In the second game of the Babe Ruth League twin bill Tuesday night, some weird things happened along the way. The team that was getting no-hit led 5-0 after three innings before the team that won scored 8 runs in the last inning to claim the victory. Ethan Spivey and Blake Moreland tossed a combined no-hitter for A-Plus Collision Center over Nichirin in the 10-5 win that was called after four innings due to the one hour and 45 minute time limit.

Forrest’s state tournament run ended in dramatic fashion Thursday afternoon when Greeneville’s Jacques Gillespie-Taylor belted a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Greene Devils a 7-5 win over the Rockets. “In the end we stuck with our game plan….fight, grind, and play with that heart and that’s what they did,” Forrest coach Bart Joyce said. “That’s what they did through that last out and at the end of the day, they never let up, not one second and this coaching staff is more than proud of the way they did things, from the first pitch of the season to right now.”

The Forrest Rockets displayed their resiliency once again on Wednesday at the TSSAA Spring Fling XV as they came back from a heartbreaking 10-8 extra-inning defeat to Greeneville with a dominating 13-1 five-inning, run-rule win over Smith County to stay alive in the Class AA division. Forrest almost pulled off the comeback for the ages versus Greeneville as they trailed 6-1 in the fifth inning before saddling up with six straight runs to take a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh inning.

The Forrest Rockets really don’t care who they play because they believe in one another. Chapel Hill played flawless baseball in Tuesday’s night’s opening round of the Spring Fling XV Class AA state championship Tuesday at Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, taking down number one ranked Covington 5-3. “I’m super proud of all 25 guys and it’s a great win for us and gets us rolling into tomorrow,” Joyce said. “These guys just keep fighting and keep fighting game in and game out and they really got it going right now, so we will be back in the morning and get it going against Greenville.”

The comeback kids are alive and well and they are the 2017-2018 Forrest Rockets. The Chapel Hill squad continued its postseason magic in a Class AA state sectional game at Chapel Hill Friday night, coming from behind twice to beat Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet School (MLK) 7-6 on a J.T. Ferguson walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning. Ferguson and his senior classmates that graduated on Saturday have won four consecutive region titles, three district titles, and are 2-2 in state sectional games with the last win coming two years ago versus Grace Christian- Franklin. They are 6-2 in the postseason this year and are a remarkable 6-0 in potential elimination contests.

Even a move up one classification did not slow down the Forrest Rockets, who beat Stewart County 3-2 in the Region 6-AA title game at Chapel Hill Wednesday night to claim their fourth straight region title and fifth in the last six years. “It was a great ballgame,” Forrest coach Bart Joyce said. “This has kinda been the deal of the whole postseason is those tight one-run ballgames.” “Our boys never gave up, even when we tied late in the game they kept grinding and kept fighting and they keep reaching their goals.”

The Forrest Rockets displayed their resiliency once again as they bounced back from a loss to Giles County in the District 12-AA title game last week with a huge 3-0 road win at Creek Wood Monday in the Region 6-AA Tournament opener. “The team played great, they fought the entire game and kept the team in a good position to win the game,” Forrest coach Bart Joyce said. “The coaching staff is very proud of how the team has fought the entire season and how they have played.” “Throughout the postseason they fought just stay alive and it was no different last night.”

The Forrest Lady Rockets (28-3) lost one game to a Divison I school in Tennessee all season, but it was a big one as the Creek Wood Lady Red Hawks pulled off a 6-5 comeback win in the Region 6-AA Tournament opener Monday night at Chapel Hill to eliminate Forrest from the postseason. “We got out hit and I think they were more determined at the plate than we were and I think that is what it boils down to in my opinion,” Forrest coach Becky Cheatham said. “Lauren (Gillespie) pitched a heck of a game, they just got on the pitches. The homerun that went to right field was two balls off the plate, so what are you going to do.”

LYNCHBURG, TN (May 11, 2018) – The Motlow Lady Bucks weren’t able to generate much offense at the TCCAA/Region VII Tournament and saw their 2018 softball season come to a close with a pair of losses earlier this week in Chattanooga. The Lady Bucks (26-20, 23-11) capped off a season that saw them finish fourth in the TCCAA conference standings, the highest finish for the program since 2011. The tournament wasn’t kind to Motlow however as they dropped a 5-2 decision to Cleveland State Sunday and a 6-3 game to Dyersburg State Monday.

Even realignment could not slow down Forrest’s yearly domination in district play as the Lady Rockets (28-2) capped off another perfect league record when they blanked Giles County 3-0 Thursday night in the District 12-AA title game at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill. “I expected it to be a battle, they have gotten better since the last two games we have played and they stepped up when it was time,” Forrest coach Becky Cheatham said. “It was a good game for us and a good game for them, so that should help us both be better prepared going into the region tournament Monday.” It was the third perfect district record in four years and 10th in the last 14 years for the two-time state champion Lady Rockets, who have a mind boggling 215-9-1 league record since 2002.

After a grueling four-game winning streak, the Forrest Rockets ran low on fuel in the District 12-AA title game, losing 7-3 to Giles County Wednesday night at Nolensville. “It’s like I said last night, the fight in those 25 guys in that dugout is just unreal, they fought through 42 innings of baseball since Sunday,” Forrest coach Bart Joyce said. “They fought hard, played hard, but just came up a little short.”

LEWISBURG – The Marshall County Tigerettes took the lead against the Giles County Lady Bobcats, but the Lady Bobcats used two three-run innings to take control and ended the Tigerettes’ season with a 6-1 victory in the District 12-AA Tournament Wednesday night at Reese Hambrick Field in Lewisburg. After winning the first three games against the Lady Bobcats this season, the Tigerettes looked poised to continue their streak and advance to the district championship, but Giles County used some timely hitting and missed opportunities by Marshall County to reverse the trend.

The Lewisburg Middle School Tigerettes’ softball team had an outstanding 2017-2018 campaign compiling a rock solid 15-1 record. LMS outscored their opponents 208-50 and six players ended the season batting over .400. Jessa Lancaster led the team with the highest batting average with a .584 mark on the year...

People who didn’t know them counted them out. That was a big mistake. The Forrest Rockets are red hot at the right time after winning their fourth straight potential season ending elimination game. After losing to Murfreesboro Central Magnet (MCM) in the first round of the District 12-AA Tournament, the Rockets have staved off elimination with a wins over Community, Marshall County, Nolensville, and a nail-biting 4-3 win over MCM at Nolensville in Tuesday night’s loser’s bracket final on a Drew Daughrity walk off single in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Lewisburg’s Joe Liggett poses seconds after recording his fifth lifetime hole in one on Sunday morning at the Buford Ellington Golf Course on the grounds of Henry Horton State Park. Liggett aced the 172-yard, Par 3, 16th hole using a six-iron and was in a foursome with Scott Delk, T.J. Tipps, and Anthony S. Puca...

Forrest and Marshall County High School met Monday night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill in the first-ever district tournament matchup between the two intra-county rivals and the game lived up to the billing as the Lady Rockets won a 2-0 thriller. “It was truly a team effort, because as you know some of us did not get the job done, but that is what a good team is all about,” Forrest coach Becky Cheatham said. “When one person is not getting it done, somebody else has to step up.”

Cornersville’s switch-hitting outfielder Hannah Hart recently signed a Letter of Intent to play softball next season on scholarship at Martin Methodist College at Pulaski. “My biggest goal throughout high school has been to play college softball and I was very excited when coach (Brandie) Paul and (Taylor) Moore offered me,” Hart said. “I am excited to attend Martin not only for athletics, but also for academics.”

The Marshall County High School girls tennis team pulled off a comeback for the ages Thursday at Tullahoma in the finals of the District 8-AAA Tournament as they fought off match point before storming back to win. The number-two seeded Tigerettes had lost 5-2 to top-seeded Tullahoma earlier in the season and were trailing 0-3 after the first three singles matches, facing defeat if they lost just one more point...

Cornersville kicked off the District 8-A Tournament with a 6-5 win over Moore County Thursday night, before suffering a 5-1 loss to host Eagleville on Friday. The Bulldogs tried to fight their way out of the loser’s bracket, but the Moore County Raiders got revenge on Monday, knocking the Bulldogs out of the playoffs via a 3-0 shutout loss...

The Forrest Rockets and the Marshall County Tigers took different paths to the loser’s bracket of the District 12-AA Tournament as Chapel Hill lost 6-2 to Central Magnet in the first round before coming back with a 2-1 win over Community on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers blasted Community 12-3 in the first round, but lost 10-5 to longtime rival Giles County in round two, setting up a titanic battle between the intra-county rivals Monday night at Nolensville.

The Cornersville Lady Bulldogs held destiny in their hands as they took on Cascade Tuesday night in a District 8-A Tournament winner’s bracket game. The Lady Dawgs beat Eagleville in round one and then took a hard fought 1-0 win over Moore County in round two. Cornersville lost 2-0 to Cascade on Tuesday and plays Moore County in the loser’s bracket final on Thursday at 5 p.m. Moore County beat the host Lady Hornets 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Today's District 12-AA softball game between Forrest and Marshall County has been rescheduled for Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

aseball Class A District 8-A Thursday: Cornersville 6, Moore County 5 Huntland at Fayetteville at Eagleville Friday: Cornersville vs. Eagleville, 5 p.m. Huntland-Fayetteville winner vs. Cascade, 7:30 p.m. Saturday: Losers bracket game, noon; winners bracket final, 2:30 p.m.; losers bracket game, 5 p.m. Monday: Losers bracket game, 5 p.m.; losers bracket fina, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday: Championship, 5 p.m.; If necessary, 7:30 p.m.

Cornersville hosted Marshall County High School in an intra-county rivalry contest Tuesday night as the Lady Bulldogs celebrated senior night in Frog Bottom. The Lady Dawgs waited until after the game to honor seniors Emma Mitchell, Hannah Hart, Mikaela King, Hannah Singleton and Ali Blair Jones and in an act of kindred sportsmanship, Cornersville also honored MCHS seniors Leah Hollingsworth, Kathryn Donahue, Sydne Solomon, and Savannah Wooten. And the game was awesome, won by the Tigerettes 4-1.

The Forrest Lady Rockets wrapped up regular season play Wednesday on senior night at the Field of Dreams in Chapel Hill with a 3-1 win over Community. Forrest extended its all-time unbeaten mark versus the Viqueens to 43 straight games dating back to 2002 and the two-run margin tied the closest the Unionville squad has ever come to beating the Lady Rockets. The only other time Community has come within two runs of victory over Chapel Hill came in the 2015 state championship season when Forrest beat the Viqueens 2-0 in the last week of the regular season.

The District 8-AAA Tennis Tournament was held this past weekend at The University of the South’s Bruton-Guerry Tennis Center. Two rounds were played on Friday, and the semifinals and finals were held on Saturday. Remarkably, the Marshall County Girls’ Tennis Team advanced seven girls into the semifinals on Saturday. After triumphing over 16 other players between them, Marshall County Junior Alexa Hooten and sophomore teammate McKenna Hunter met for the girls’ singles championship where Hooten prevailed 6-4, 6-0.

Coming into the world a little over a month early, the complications and prognosis for Cornersville’s Presley Pitts was unknown. Other than being tiny, everything appeared to be normal with the preemie until the age of six months when she was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis. Pitts became the youngest and smallest infant to undergo a spinal fusion at Vanderbilt’s Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital as the surgeon removed her bottom left rib and fused it into her lumbar spine.

The 2016-2017 season was a lost year for Marshall County Tigerette standout Sydne Solomon as she had to sit out the softball campaign with a knee injury, but the Western Kentucky University signee has come back with a vengeance. Solomon has put up a solid 2017-2028 campaign as she recently broke the MCHS homerun record set by Austin Whaley and she added to that total Friday night in a 5-2 win versus Murfreesboro Central Magnet School (MCM). “Sydne did a great job catching and hitting the ball, I’m proud of her,” Marshall County coach Wes Woods said. “We started off slow, popping the ball up, but we adjusted well throughout the game and hit the ball when we got it squared up better.”

The Forrest Rockets celebrated a record nine graduating seniors in Logan Cedotal, Jaylen Smith, Ryan Moses, Jarvis Lyttle, J.T. Ferguson, Dylan Eady, Drew Daughrity, Dustin Brashear, and Lane Allen that all took spots in the starting lineup Monday in a 6-0 loss to Page. “The record they have put together at 85-39-1 and all the district titles that they have been a part of speaks for itself,” Forrest coach Bart Joyce said. “They have all work hard and developed a great comradery on this team and I’m proud of them and what they have accomplished.”

One of the responsibilities that parents take most seriously is protecting their children from injury, whether it is buckling seat belts in a car or wearing a helmet while riding a bike. And when their kids become teenagers and want to participate in sports or other activities, parents do everything they can to keep their sons and daughters from getting hurt. But not all injuries are caused by a twist, fall, collision or accident. Many are caused when young athletes repeat the same athletic activity so often that muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones don’t have time to recover—especially among middle school and high school students. These injuries can end promising careers, cost families tens of thousands of dollars, squash dreams and literally change lives.

LYNCHBURG, TN (May 1, 2018) – The Motlow Lady Bucks outscored visiting Southwest Tennessee 33-2 and outhit the Lady Saluqis 42-16 on their way to a four-game TCCAA conference sweep last weekend at Lady Bucks Field on Motlow’s Moore County campus. In the final games of the regular season, the Lady Bucks (26-18, 23-11) beat Southwest 8-0, 11-2 on Saturday and 8-0, 6-0 Sunday. Motlow will be the No. 4 seed in next week’s TCCAA/Region VII Tournament, being held at Chattanooga State. The Lady Bucks will play the No. 5 seed, Cleveland State (23-20, 15-17) Sunday, May 6, at 3 p.m. EST.

The Forrest Rockets hosted Giles County Wednesday night in a doubleheader to put some clarity at the top of the District 11-AA standings as the regular season winds down and seeding’s for the district tournament wash out. Forrest needed a sweep to capture one of the top three seeds and after a 6-1 win in game one, Bobcat senior hurler and Columbia State Community College signee Blade Matthews shut down the Chapel Hill bats via a one-hit shutout.

After an hour and 15 minute rain delay at Eagleville Tuesday night, the Cornersville Bulldogs and the Eagles squared off in rainy, sloppy conditions for the most important game of the season. A win by the Bulldogs would have sent the two squads back to Cornersville for a one-game match for the District 8-A title on Wednesday, but it was not to be as the Bulldogs turned in a subpar performance in an 11-3 loss. The 11 runs were the most scored by an opponent versus the Bulldogs this season and the majority of the damage was self-inflicted as only six of Eagleville’s runs were earned.