C-N begins 2025 with King
January 31, 2025

C-N begins 2025 with King

Carson-Newman begins the 2025 campaign on Saturday afternoon as it welcomes King to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a three-game series.

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C-N Game Notes (PDF)

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman begins the 2025 campaign on Saturday afternoon as it welcomes King to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a three-game series.

The opening weekend series starts with a doubleheader beginning at noon on Saturday, followed by the series finale Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Since Carson-Newman joined Division II in 1994, the Eagles are 27-4 in home openers including 17-2 under Griffin since he took over in 2006, after beating King on Opening Day last season. The Eagles have won 12 straight home openers with their last loss in a lid lifter at home coming on Feb. 21, 2012, when King (Tenn.) took home a 10-7 victory.

After not hosting a season opener since 1992, the Eagles are the starting the year at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for the fourth straight season. Carson-Newman has won five of its last six season openers including three straight opening day victories.

Among the four all-conference selections from this past season, Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga) is the only player that returns to this year's team. Being named to the third-team, Floyd became just the 10th third baseman to be named all-conference and the first since Brett Langhorne in 2018. As a freshman, he hit five home runs, all of which came from March 27th on. He led the team with a .356 batting average and had 16 multi-hit efforts including five games with three or more.

Leadoff hitter Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) also returns for C-N after putting together a career year in 2024. His .331 batting average was second highest on the team (only behind Floyd). He had a career year, recording more runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, and RBI than he had combined from his first two seasons.

Carson-Newman had a seven-game winning streak versus King snapped when the two teams last met on April 15, 2024 in Bristol. But, C-N swept last season's opening weekend series with two of those wins coming by two runs. The Eagles have won five of their last six home games against the Tornado and lead the all-time series 27-11.

After finishing the 2024 season 14-32 overall, King was picked to finish 11th out of 13 teams in Conference Carolinas' preseason poll for the upcoming 2025 season.

King will start a new era on Saturday afternoon as Brad Hill begins his first season in Bristol. Hill has been with the Tornado staff since 2019-20 season as the recruiting coordinator. He takes over for Blaine Brown, who went 271-284 in his 12 seasons with King baseball.

The Tornado brings back its top hitter from last season in Truman Roper. The outfielder hit a team-best at .366 at the plate and led the team with 52 hits. He reached base most often for King, more than 43 percent of the time.

King also brings back its top two sluggers from 2024 as well in Nathan Borchardt and Michael Starrs. Starrs led the team with 10 home runs and 35 RBI last season while Borchardt was third in RBI with 30. Borchardt's .320 batting average was second highest on the team.

King's top pitcher returns from last season. As a freshman, Corbin Dickerson posted a 4.03 ERA and went 5-2 last season in 19 appearances over 44 2/3 innings pitched. His five wins were a team-high and his 39 strikeouts were second-most on the team.

First pitch for the doubleheader on Saturday is set for 12:00 p.m. from the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. All games will air with a video stream available on FloSports with a subscription. There will also be a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.

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