Trio of Eagles earn Preseason All-SAC honors
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Kolton Casson, Logan Floyd and Cole Nathan were all named to the South Atlantic Conference’s preseason all-conference first team, the league office announced Monday morning.
VIDEO: Kolton Casson Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Kolton Casson, Logan Floyd and Cole Nathan were all named to the South Atlantic Conference's preseason all-conference first team, the league office announced Monday morning.
Additionally, Bradley Soto Diaz, Johno Pierce and Jackson Underwood were all named players to watch by the league.
Kolton Casson returns for his sophomore season, after tying the program record for wins in a season and leading all of DII with 13 to earn consensus All-American honors. The SAC and Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year tossed 95 2/3 innings, the sixth-most in a season in C-N's DII era, finishing the year with six complete games, tied for the second-most in school history. 12 of the rookie's 15 starts were quality starts and he struck out at least six batters in more than half of his outings.
Logan Floyd's sophomore season proved that his elite freshman season was not a fluke, leading C-N in most statistical hitting categories in 2025. Floyd earned All-SAC First Team honors at first base after posting team-best marks in batting average (.364), on-base percentage (.432), slugging (.505), hits (75), doubles (17), extra-base hits (21), and RBI (51). He also led the team with 22 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games. He hit safely in 24 straight games, the second-longest hitting streak by a C-N hitter in the program's DII history. During that 40-day stretch, Floyd hit .406 with 2 home runs, 21 RBI and scored 17 runs. He was also the only player to start and play in all 56 games.
Cole Nathan earned All-SAC Second Team honors at second base last year, after posting the second-best batting average on the club, while hitting .339 with 64 hits in 189 at bats. He had six extra-base hits, highlighted by a team-high four triples and tying for the team-high with four home runs. Nathan drove in 44 runs, second-most on the team and had 19 multi-hit and 12 multi-RBI games, both were second-most on the team.
Bradley Soto Diaz joins Carson-Newman after spending 2025 at William Penn and the prior two seasons at Cayuga Community College. With William Penn, Soto Diaz hit .385 and tied their program's single-season home run record with 17 long balls to pair along with 42 RBI. At Cayuga CC, Soto Diaz was an all-conference player hitting nearly .400 at the plate.
Johno Pierce joins the Eagles after spending the past two seasons at Roane State Community College. The Brentwood native posted a .343 batting average with three home runs and 27 RBI in 2025. Pierce's speed was on full display as well, swiping 34 bases in 40 attempts.
In his first season with Carson-Newman, Jackson Underwood was a Swiss army knife, pitching in 17 games and posting a 3.43 era in 57 2/3 innings. His first eight career outings with C-N were out of the bullpen, where he posted a 2.29 ERA in 19 2/3 innings. Underwood a scoreless innings streak at 6 2/3 innings in mid-February. Out of need, he was moved to a starting role in mid-March and went on to make nine starts through the rest of the year. As a starting pitcher, Underwood had a 4.03 ERA in 38 innings.
Carson-Newman opens the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on Friday January 30th, at 2:00 p.m., starting a three-game series with Charleston (W.V). Every home game can be heard on cneagles.com/live with live video available on the Eagle Sports Network with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/floBase.
