Lions, Lionettes in action as Spring begins

DAVID HUNTER
The Cannon Courier

All of the Cannon County athletic teams were in action last week, including the start of the CCHS boys' soccer season. Both the Lions and Lionettes finished with mixed success in the final week of action before Spring Break. However, the middle school diamond, along with the high school tennis teams are off.

Junior Lion Baseball
The young but talented middle school squad dropped to 0-4 in 2016 after falling at home 14-0 to Upperman Middle on March 21. Jack Davis had the only hit for the Junior Lions in the loss.

CCHS Baseball
The Lions opened up district play with a two game home-and-home series against Livingston on March 21 and 22. They fell on the road in a tough 6-5 game for their first loss of the season as play jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings, but the Wildcats came from behind to win in eight innings. In the loss, Austin Martin scored twice, including stealing home on a strikeout, and connected on a double. Jared Judkins added a two RBIs single in the loss.
In the second game of the series, the Lions fell behind early to the Wildcats, 4-1 heading into the final inning. However, LA scored two more runs to make it 6-1 as the CCHS had one more chance to win. The Lions had runners on second and third with two outs, and Martin reached base with Charlie Parrish scoring. The game and the rally ended when Preston Campbell was caught at home.

CCHS Softball
During the March 18-19 weekend, the Lionettes went 0-4 against tough competition at the Gordonsville Tournament. However, they continued district play at Smith County on March 22 and hosted Macon County a day later in the first home game of the season.
The Lionettes bats came to life again against the Lady Owls as they fell behind early 6-0 after the opening inning. However, CCHS scored nine runs in the final three innings to pull out the 11-8 win, which improved them to 2-0 in the district. Kallie McCrary scored three times, including crushing a three-run homer in the final inning to put the Lionettes ahead for good.
"I am very proud," Lionettes head coach Brittany Cook said. "I told them going into this tournament we were going to face a lot of good teams. We needed to learn from this experience, and use this as a learning experience so we are trying to win. My girls took that to heart, and we talked about it. We pulled out the win."
The following day, the Lionettes dropped their first district game of the season in their home opener to Macon 17-0 in three innings.

CCHS Boys' Soccer
The Lions opened up the 2016 season at home against Watertown on March 22. It was the first under new head coach Jeran Tenpenny, and the Lions nearly pulled it off as Qwentin McMackins scored for the host. However, Watertown answered to take a 2-1 advantage, but CCHS had a chance late to even the match. CCHS junior Jake Walkup missed a penalty kick wide left with less than a minute left in the match, and Watertown held on for the win.

CCHS Tennis
The Lions and Lionettes had a busy week at home this week with two matches against Macon County (March 21), Webb School (March 22). Both teams fell at home against Coffee County on March 18 and Macon County on March 21 as both teams lost all of their matches. The Lionettes finished up the week with a 1-7 loss to the Feet with Alli Howard picking up the only win for the host.

You can reach David at dhunter@cannoncourier.com