Bradley’s shutout seals split with No. 21 Bears
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Matt Bradley hurled Carson-Newman’s first complete game shutout of the season guiding the Eagles to a 6-0 win in the nightcap after falling 14-6 in game one against No. 21 Lenoir-Rhyne Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex in South Atlantic Conference play.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 18 | 0 |
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0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 1 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
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0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | X | 6 | 9 | 0 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Matt Bradley hurled Carson-Newman's first complete game shutout of the season guiding the Eagles to a 6-0 win in the nightcap after falling 14-6 in game one against No. 21 Lenoir-Rhyne Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex in South Atlantic Conference play.
"Matt Bradley – that was absolutely amazing," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "Good mound presence, his slider and location was exceptional. He had a changeup when he needed it. That slider was the difference. He competed his rear end off. They have a really good club over there. When you get knocked out in that first game, you have to have somebody to be that guy and that was Matt Bradley today. Then we got big hits from Harrison Travis and Kilian Daughtry. That's a good stinking comeback right there."
Carson-Newman (25-19, 10-9) earned its third shutout of the season and its first against a conference foe since April 18, 2021 at Coker. The Eagles blanked Lenoir-Rhyne (36-8, 14-6) for the second time over the last six meetings. Griffin's group gets their first win of the year over a top 25 team and first since beating 11th-ranked Tusculum in the 2021 SAC Tournament.
Game One: No. 21 LENOIR-RHYNE 14, Carson-Newman 6
After the Bears pierced the scoreboard for a run on a ground out in the first, the club exploded for seven runs, all with two outs after the bases were empty to jump out to an 8-0 lead. Cole Laskowski started the scoring with a two-run double. After an RBI single, two-run homers from Drew Yniesta and Luis Atiles closed out a sequence of seven straight hits.
LR starter Joshua Lanham retired seven of the first eight batters before Matt Parkinson (Whitesboro, N.Y.) launched a home run to left field on the first pitch saw in a string of five hits over the next six batters. A sacrifice fly added a run before Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) lined a two-out single to left to inch the Eagles within an 8-3 tally.
In the fourth, the Bears added three more on a sacrifice fly and a two-run triple by Anthony Porrino. The team added two more in the fifth on a base hit by Laskowski and a solo homer by Wade Cuda to push the bulge out to 13-3.
Carson-Newman took its turn to score with two outs in the sixth getting an RBI single by Henry Jackson (Waxhaw, N.C.) singling to center to score a run before the Eagles added one when a runner from third scored while Jackson was caught in a rundown trimming it back to 13-5.
The teams traded runs in the eighth as C-N left the bases loaded in the ninth inning and 11 overall in the game. Parkinson went 3-for-4 with two runs scored to guide the Eagles offense that cranked out 14 hits, the most allowed by the Bears this year.
Lanham earned the win to improve to 9-1 despite giving up the most runs of his season firing six innings allowing five earned runs on nine hits with three strikeouts.
Each of the top four hitters in the LR lineup produced a multi-hit day with Laskowski and Yniesta driving in three runs apiece as the team racked up 18 hits.
Game Two: CARSON-NEWMAN 6, No. 21 Lenoir-Rhyne 0 (7 Innings)
Travis opened the scoring by leading off the bottom of the second inning with his fifth home run of the week blasting a 0-1 pitch to straightaway center field to put the home team ahead 1-0.
With two outs, Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.) yanked a double into the right-center field gap and hustled in to score a base hit through the right side of the infield by Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonville, S.C.) to expand the edge to 2-0.
Andrew Carpenter (Morristown, Tenn.) blasted the second roundtripper of the game for the home club cranking a 1-2 delivery over the wall in left-center field pushing the margin out to 3-0.
In the fifth inning, C-N loaded the bases with Daughtry slashing a two-run single into right field setting the stage for a sacrifice fly to right by Travis doubling the lead to 6-0.
On the day, Bradley allowed only three base runners to reach scoring position working around a runner at third base and one out in the third. The senior retired 10 in a row before giving up two singles in the seventh before getting a fielder's choice to seal the win. He was the first C-N pitcher with a complete game shutout since Brayden Coe (Bridgeville, Pa.) did so in the SAC Tournament on April 22, 2021.
The Talbott, Tenn. native finished his day allowing five hits while fanning a season-high nine batters to improve to 6-0 on the season. He has not allowed a run over his last 13 2/3 innings.
"First of all I want to thank God," Bradley said. "This is Good Friday and that's what's important first of all. It's the last time here and you want to have fun. I competed like I always do. Things went my way today."
Daughtry was the only player in the game with a multi-hit effort going 2-for-3 with three RBIs with Travis adding a pair of RBIs.
The Eagles and the Bears are slated to wrap up their series on Saturday at noon in the final home game of the season for C-N. Broadcast coverage airs on cneagles.com/live with audio and video streams available on the Eagle Sports Network.
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