MANCHESTER, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (11-5, 1-3) picked up their first District 9-AAAA win of the season on Wednesday night in impressive fashion, taking down Coffee County (14-6, 2-2), 8-1, in game two of the series.

Shelbyville’s sensational sophomore lefty, Stephen Bobo, dominated the Raiders’ lineup on the mound, throwing 6.2 innings and giving up just a single run on five hits and two walks while striking out a season-high 12 batters on 111 pitches. Palmer Edwards came on to get the final out on four pitches.

Batting third, Bobo went 0-2 at the plate, but he did draw a pair of walks.

Davis McKenzie got the start on the mound for Coffee County, lasting 4.1 innings while giving up eight runs with seven earned on seven hits and four walks. McKenzie struck out eight batters on 101 pitches. Kasen Shores came on in relief, throwing 2.2 innings and giving up no runs on one hit and two walks with a single strikeout on 43 pitches.

After being unable to deliver the key hit with runners in scoring position on Tuesday, the Golden Eagles found the timely base knocks on Wednesday, mainly thanks to the bottom of the order. 

6-hole-hitter Palmer Edwards continued his recent hot stretch, batting 2-3 at the plate with a walk. Behind him, Ashton Whorley came up with a pair of hits, finishing 2-3  with a walk and one RBI. Reager Edwards batted 2-4 and drove home three runs on the night. The six, seven, and eight-hole hitters combined to go 6-10 with four RBIs while the rest of the lineup combined for just two hits. Michael Estrada, batting ninth, tacked on another single as well. 

William Bobo was the only other batter to record a base hit, but it was a timely 2-RBI single to cap his strong series after slugging two doubles in game one.

Shelbyville jumped on the Raiders in the top of the second, plating a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead. The Golden Eagles tacked on three more in the top of the third to grow the lead to 5-0 before Coffee Count was able to scratch across one run in the home half. Leadoff man Cole Pippenger went 1-4 at the plate with a triple, and it was his triple in the bottom of the third inning that led to the Raiders’ one and only run of the game after Blake Hillis, who went a perfect 2-2 at the plate with a double, drove home Pippenger on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-1. 

Neither team scored in the fourth inning, but then the Golden Eagles tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth to reach the final margin of victory at 8-1. Both pitching staff put up zeros in the sixth and seventh innings. 

Shelbyville wins their 11th game of the season, and they are scheduled to play a double-header on Friday night against Sequatchie County at 5:00 p.m. followed by Whitwell at roughly 7:15 p.m. in the Mountain Valley Classic at Sequatchie County. They will then play Marion County on Saturday at noon.