Eagles try to end skid with two midweek games
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Having lost four straight games, Carson-Newman opens a busy week filled with six games with a 2 p.m. first pitch against King (Tenn.) on Tuesday and a 2 p.m. versus Bluefield State Wednesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Having lost four straight games, Carson-Newman opens a busy week filled with six games with a 2 p.m. first pitch against King (Tenn.) on Tuesday and a 2 p.m. versus Bluefield State Wednesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"I'm going to work hard to figure out ways to get them to play well in all facets," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said following the series finale at Catawba. "I can't control them. We will be focused on ways to get them better. They represent this program. It's an outstanding program. We just aren't doing a good job right now."
In a series that dates back to 1990, Carson-Newman (6-9) holds the lead in the series 17-7 entering the 25th all-time affair with wins in each of the last four. The two programs will meet for the eighth consecutive season in a home-and-home series after a six-year hiatus while the meeting at Mossy Creek is the 15th with the Eagles ahead 10-4.
King (8-6) has lost back-to-back outings in Jefferson City with its last win at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex coming on Feb. 20, 2013 in a 12-8 decision.
The Eagles have posted double-digit run efforts against the Tornado 10 times in the first 24 meetings including in each game in 2016. In five consecutive outings from 1992 to 2003, C-N registered no fewer than 13 runs averaging 17.8 in that span.
In the most recent game at the SDBC, Jimmy Rice (Middlesex, N.J.) hit a a 0-2 pitch over a drawn-in outfield in left field to score Trever Lee (Garner, N.C.) and give Carson-Newman an 11-10 walk-off win over the Tornado. The Eagles outhit the Tornado 17-15 as six separate players had multi-hit affairs including four players, Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jimmy Rice (Middlesex, N.J.), Brandon Roberts and Lee, with three hits.
Griffin's group enters Tuesday's game with a four-game losing streak, its longest since beginning the 2016 season 0-4. The Eagles have not lost five straight since dropping six in-a-row from March 7-15, 2015.
In 2016, King produced an 18-30 season that included a seventh-place finish in Conference Carolinas. Coach Blaine Brown returns 12 starters with a projection for a sixth-place ranking in the preseason coaches' poll.
The biggest piece missing from the group is consensus all-region selection Ryan Whitt who led the Tornado with a .430 batting average and .507 on-base percentage while driving in 45 runs and scoring 46 times.
King has already played 10 road games in 2017 going 5-5 in that span while coming off of series loss at Belmont Abbey over the weekend where the Crusaders won the first two games before the Tornado won the finale 7-4.
Senior Ryan Sattz is the team's leader after being named to the second squad of Conference Carolinas in a season where he hit .379 with seven home runs and 41 RBIs.
This season, the roster is hitting .312 as a group and being led at the plate by Dylan Sligh who is posting a .372 batting average with a team-high seven extra-base hits and 15 RBIs.
On the mound, coach Brown has already used 16 different hurlers while just four have thrown double-digit innings on the year. The staff has racked up a 7.24 team earned run average despite issuing just 46 walks in 102 innings. The pitchers have given up 123 total hits including 10 home runs.
Wednesday is the seventh time that Carson-Newman and Bluefield State (3-6) will meet on the diamond. Each of the first six meetings have come in Jefferson City with the Eagles winning all six outings while scoring at least 10 runs in each of the last four meetings.
The two teams opened up the series on March 2, 1995 with C-N winning 8-4. The second meeting came nine years later on Feb. 7, 2004. 2017 will be the fourth straight year the two squads meet.
In just one affair in 2016, Carson-Newman earned a 12-4 win on March 2. The Eagles used eight pitchers on the day as the group combined to punch out six batters while not allowing a walk and giving up just one earned run. Right-hander Austin Conner (Sevierville, Tenn.) picked up his first-career win.
Paul Kirby (Goodlettsville, Tenn.) tallied his third multi-hit game of the season going 3-for-4 with a long ball and three RBIs while scoring twice. Roberts racked up a three-hit effort for the third time going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Overall eight players had at least one hit with each of the top four men in the lineup recording multi-hit days.
The Big Blues, a team independent of a conference, went 12-38 in 2016 while losing each of their final six outings. The team played 31 road games going 5-26 in road outings.
Coach Geoff Hunter graduated six seniors from last season's team and returns 14 letter winners to a team that has started the 2017 slate 3-6.
Bluefield State starts the year with 26 straight road or neutral site games on the schedule with its first home game coming on March 29 against Guilford. 15 of the final 21 games of the year are slated to be at home.
Both games will be featured on cneagles.com/live as the Eagle Sports Network will be on site with video and audio streams beginning 15 minutes prior to the first pitch with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to First Pitch".
- CN -
