First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall women’s soccer took care of business in dominate fashion in a 9-0 victory against the UPike Bears on Saturday at Hoops Family Field in the teams’ Fans First Exhibition.       Hurricane native Bailey Fisher and newcomer Tiggi Gent led the way for the Herd with two goals apiece as The Herd held the Bears without a single shot.       The Herds’ stampede began at the opening gate, as it found the back of the net 30 seconds into the match as Fisher scored off an assist by Brooklyn McComas.       In the fourth minute, Larissa Ozorio added onto the score as she found the bottom center of the goal from an assist by Ami Komori to give the Herd a 2-0 lead.       McComas scored 15 minutes later as Geovanna Souza picked up her first of two assists. Souza drew UPike goalkeeper Neveah Brown out of the goal to give McComas the wide-open shot.      Marshall’s...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Women’s Soccer welcomes the UPIKE Bears in a preseason Fans First Exhibition tomorrow at Hoops Family Field.      The Thundering Herd enters its fourth season in the Sun Belt Conference and second under head coach Rafa Simoes. UPIKE also known as the University of Pikeville, are members of the NAIA Appalachian Athletics Conference and led by first-year head coach Shane Taylor.       The two teams had opposite results a year ago. The Thundering Herd struggled as it finished 3-8-5. UPIKE had a historic season finishing with the second most wins in program history with 9 as it went 9-7-2. The Bears also picked up a program-best 6 wins in conference play, going 6-5-2, and concluding the season with the first ever to finish with winning a record both overall and in conference play.      Both teams had to revamp its rosters as the Thundering Herd lost 13 players, while UPIKE lost eight from a ...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Football has begun its first few days in full pads as it gets closer and closer to its season opener against the Georgia Bulldogs. Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith said that the offense after a slow start is starting to show signs of improvement.      “Well, it's been four good days some's better than others." Smith said in an interview with media members. "Yesterday was pretty rough. Today was a much better day for both sides to be honest with you. But we didn't play very well yesterday on offense, but today we came back, bounced back, proud of the effort, proud of them coming back and attacking the day and we made some steps today.”       With the season less than a month away, Smith said that fall camp is the pinnacle time for the team to adapt and limit the amount of errors before week one.      “These practices are like gold," Smith said. "So our guys have got to take each and every ...

 By Ben Anderson      The Tri-State Coal Cats officially concluded their second season in the Appalachian League following an road loss against the Kingsport Axmen.      The Coal Cats fell in their final game of the season in a brutal fashion, 16-0 in a seven-inning run-rule loss. The Axmen brought the offense early, scoring runs in the first four innings by scoring three in the first and second, six in the third, and four in the fourth to take the 16-0 lead.      Kingsport outhit Tri-State 13-3 in the contest. Kenneth Jackson took the loss to finish his season at 1-6 going 2.2 innings and allowing 9 runs, 8 earned runs, on 4 hits and 6 walks while striking out 2. Aidan Murphy picked up his first win of the season in relief for Kingsport as he went two innings of one hit baseball.  TRI-STATE 000 000 0XX – 0 3 1 KINGSPORT 336 400 XXX  – 16 13 0 Jackson, McIntosh (3), Sylvest (4), Lawrence (5), and Golden; Larkin, Murphy (4), Tow...

By Ben Anderson      Gerald J. Harrison has been hired as the new leader of the Marshall Thundering Herd. Harrison comes to Marshall after serving Austin Peay where he served the same position since 2018.      Marshall University President Brad D. Smith said that Harrison checked all of the boxes when looking for a new director of athletics.        “Someone who's a strategic thinker,” Smith said. “Thinks over multiple time horizons. Someone who drives for results, establishes bold goals, figures out the priorities and resources them. Someone who builds a high performance culture, who can attract and retain the top talent, and then create an environment where they can do the best work of their lives. Someone who innovates for impact wakes up every day and says there has to be a new and better way. To make this happen and last but not least, someone who inspires through personal action brings intellectual curiosity, humility, teamwork...

 By Ben Anderson      The Tri-State Coal Cats struggled in its last homestand of the season as they dropped four of six games at Jack Cook Field.       The week started with a two-game series against the Bristol State Liners, which saw the Coal Cats split the two-game series. Game one was a rough outing for the Coal Cats as they fell 8-2.       Tri-State managed just one hit in the loss. The tone was set early after starting pitcher Kenneth Jackson ran into trouble in the second inning. With two outs and a runner on, a fielding error by Tyler Smolinski opened the door for Bristol, and the State Liners made the most of it. Jackson never quite recovered, surrendering five runs -- only one of them earned -- across four innings of work. He issued four walks and struck out one.      Noah LaFine entered in relief and struggled to settle in, allowing two more runs on three hits and three walks. The bullpen allowed one r...