Henderson hurls complete game in 7-1 win over E&H
April 22, 2025

Henderson hurls complete game in 7-1 win over E&H

No. 17 Carson-Newman (33-14) got a sensational pitching performance from Christian Henderson to win its final regular season road game of the season, defeating Emory & Henry (16-31) 7-1 on Tuesday afternoon at Porterfield-Devault Field.

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EMORY, Va.- No. 17 Carson-Newman (33-14) got a sensational pitching performance from Christian Henderson (Clarksville, Tenn.) to win its final regular season road game of the season, defeating Emory & Henry (16-31) 7-1 on Tuesday afternoon at Porterfield-Devault Field.

Henderson tossed just the third nine-inning complete game by a C-N pitcher in the last seven seasons and the first since Brayden Coe's nine-inning complete game in the South Atlantic Conference baseball tournament on April 22, 2021 against Mars Hill. It's the first complete game by an Eagles pitcher in a midweek non-conference game since April 28, 2015 when Vince Apicella tossed a nine inning complete game shutout against Trevecca Nazarene.

"Story of the day was Christian Henderson and Frankie Delgado," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. A complete game for 9 innings is hard to do, especially against some of the hitters in the E&H lineup. He was dominant in the strike zone and very efficient. Frankie (Delgado) called a great game. Defense played really well especially Ryan Jenkins at shortstop and Floyd continued his hot hitting."

The rookie pitcher needed just 103 pitches to make his way through nine innings on the mound, 72 of which were strikes. He allowed just one run to score on eight hits, without walking a batter and recording four strikeouts. To make up his 27 outs, he got 13 fly outs, eight groundouts, one double play and four strikeouts. Over his first seven career appearances, Henderson had not pitched more than 4.2 innings in a game and went the distance in just his fifth career start.

Henderson is the reason Carson-Newman produces its 20th game this season holding its opponent to two runs or less. It's the second most occurrences of holding an opponent to two runs or less in the Tom Griffin era.

Carson-Newman wasted no time getting things going on the offensive side. Ryan Jenkins (Winter Haven, Fla.) singled to left and advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch to start the inning. He scored the game's first run when Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) singled through the left side. Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) made it a 2-0 game with a sacrifice fly to left.

E&H would get a run back in the bottom of the first inning. Jared Foley singled to start the inning and later scored on a groundout to make it 2-1.

Jenkins extended C-N's advantage in his second plate appearance. On the first pitch of the third inning, he crushed a breaking ball over the left field wall to extend Carson-Newman's lead back to two.

Henderson pitched well to keep C-N ahead after allowing a run in the first. He settled in and retired five straight Wasps' hitters in innings two and three to toss scoreless innings. He would allow baserunners in each of the next three frames, but two of those were two-out base hits that were stranded, and good defense assisted a stretch in which Henderson pitched four consecutive scoreless frames.

C-N's offense would extend its lead to three in the sixth inning. With runners on the corners, Trey Miller (Rocky Point, NY) doubled down the left field line, scoring Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.).

The Eagles defense helped Henderson pitch a scoreless seventh inning, his sixth straight. After a one-out hit by pitch, E&H's Camden Bailey singled down the left field line which seemed to put two runners on base. C-N left fielder Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) had other ideas. He fielded the base hit and threw a laser to second base where he threw out Bailey who was trying to turn his hit into extra bases.

Insurance runs were added in C-N's half of the eighth inning. A pair of free passes and a balk put runners on second and third with one out. Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) delivered with a two-run single into shallow left field to make it 6-1 Eagles. Williams moved around the bases after stealing second and advancing to third on a wild pitch. Floyd drove him in with a single up the middle to cap a three-run eighth inning to extend C-N's lead to 7-1.

A baserunner reached on Henderson in the eighth inning, but he worked around it and got three fly ball outs in the inning.

The most pressure Henderson faced all day came in his final inning. Jacob Bebber led off with a double and the next batter was hit by a pitch. The rookie pitcher regrouped and got back to back fly outs, followed by a three-pitch strikeout to end the game.

Floyd continued his elite stretch at the plate, going three for five with two RBI to extend his hitting streak to 17 games.

Kilgore and Jenkins both had two hit days while, Williams joined Floyd with a 2 RBI day.

E&H's leadoff batter Jared Foley had three hits in his four at bats and scored its only run of the game.

Garrett Williams suffered his first loss of the year, allowing three runs to score on four hits in two innings of work.

No. 17 Carson-Newman concludes the regular season this weekend with Mars Hill. The three-game home weekend series is scheduled to begin on Friday at 2:00 p.m. 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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