C-N blanked in midweek battle with Lee
March 11, 2025

C-N blanked in midweek battle with Lee

No. 25 Carson-Newman (16-6) stranded ten runners on base in a 2-0 shutout loss to Lee (12-11) on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 25 Carson-Newman (16-6) stranded ten runners on base in a 2-0 shutout loss to Lee (12-11) on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

"Hitting is hard sometimes," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "The arms that they threw were quality Division II arms. Hitting is all about confidence, self-confidence with your teammates. There has to be a mindset in that batter's box and some guys it looks like they are hitting .150 for the year. We have a little league mentality that if we don't get a base hit it's a bad at bat. There has to be some maturity at the plate. We have to learn to mature more as players."

Lee has now won six straight meetings in this series and a second straight in Mossy Creek by two runs.

It's the first time Carson-Newman has been shutout at home since losing to Quincy 4-0 on March 6, 2022.

With one-out in the top of the second inning, Lee got back-to-back baserunners. Later in the frame with two outs, Ashton Simmions singled up the middle to plate two runs and it was 2-0 Lee in the top of the second inning.

Carson-Newman had excellent chances in the first three innings. In the first inning, C-N had runners on first and second and didn't score. They had similar situations in the second and third innings with two outs or less and came up empty.

The Eagles threatened to score in the bottom of the fifth inning as well. A hit by pitch and a fielding error put runners on second and third with just one out. C-N ended up stranding the bases loaded in that inning.

C-N's bullpen kept it in the game through the middle innings. Christian Henderson (Cookeville, Tenn.) tossed three scoreless relief innings, allowing no runs and striking out two.

Mark Salicco (Waxhaw, N.C.) helped the Eagles keep the deficit at two runs in the top of the sixth inning. With runner on first and second, he entered the game and got Lee's leadoff batter JJ Williams to groundout and end the inning.

Salicco ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing back-to-back singles to begin the inning. A sac bunt pushed the runners into scoring position with one out, but Salicco bared down. He struck out both Levi and Malachi Cloud to escape the seventh inning jam.

Ryan Jenkins (Winter Haven, Fla.) singled with one-out in the seventh inning but was left on base.

C-N managed just two base runners in the final four frames.

Lee's pitching staff combined for its third shutout of the season and second against the Eagles. Seth Parker was the winning pitcher, with his two scoreless innings to go with three strikeouts. Tim Gooden recorded his first save of the season, despite allowing two hits in the ninth inning.

Jenkins led the Eagles offensively, going two for four at the plate. He now has four multi-hit games this season.

Five different relievers helped C-N blank the Flames over the final seven frames of the contest. Bransen Angel (Lutz, Fla.), Blake Cooper (Maryville, Tenn.) Henderson, Eli Norris (Ringgold, Ga.) and Salicco combined for six strikeouts allowing seven hits and one walk. As a pitching staff, Carson-Newman forced Lee to strand 11 runners in the game.

Carson-Newman is back in action for a South Atlantic Conference series at Limestone this weekend. First pitch for the series opener on Friday is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.

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