Nathan’s seventh inning blast helps Eagles win series at Mars Hill
MARS HILL, N.C. – Another road rally for Carson-Newman (23-17, 13-14 SAC) helped secure a series win and a doubleheader split with Mars Hill (20-21-1, 15-11-1 SAC) on Saturday afternoon at Henderson Field.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 1 |
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1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | X | 12 | 12 | 0 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
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5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
MARS HILL, N.C. – Another road rally for Carson-Newman (23-17, 13-14 SAC) helped secure a series win and a doubleheader split with Mars Hill (20-21-1, 15-11-1 SAC) on Saturday afternoon at Henderson Field.
With a win in the series finale, Carson-Newman becomes the first team this season to win a weekend series at Mars Hill. The Lions entered the weekend with just three home losses and the Eagles handed them two more. C-N has now won 14 of the last 18 meetings and has won the last four series against MHU.
"A really tough team at home and that was a battle," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Credit to their hitters, I thought they did a great job of swinging the bat all day today. In a park like this, you just need to keep within striking distance because the ball can carry at times here. Kolton Casson got better as the game went on. Cole (Nathan) what a great job today. From yesterday, we talked about how there are so many ups and downs with baseball. You have to stay with it. I thought his approach today was tremendous. I'm very proud of our guys for hanging in there against a tough squad."
C-N's road record is now 13-7. The Eagles now have nine comeback victories this season and now three on the road when trailing by at least three runs.
Game One: Mars Hill 12, Carson-Newman 8
The first two batters for MHU reached in the first. One would later score on a RBI groundout to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead.
A small ball approach gave the Lions a 2-0 lead in the second. A hit by pitch opened the inning and then a stolen base and sac bunt moved the runner to third with one out. A groundout by Alejandro Aguilar scored the run.
Carson-Newman had runners in every inning of the game, but was unable to convert opportunities early on.
MHU would continue its early offensive success in the third. They loaded the bases with nobody out. Gavyn Miller scored a run on a sac fly, with two more later scoring on a Terick Bumgarner two-out triple to make it a 5-0 MHU lead after three innings.
Extra-base hits in the fourth and fifth innings helped the Lions surge ahead 7-0 after five innings.
The game nearly ended in the seventh inning. A throwing error and a single extended MHU's advantage to make it 9-0. The Eagles kept the game going by turning a 6-4-3 double play.
Carson-Newman's offense would come alive in the eighth inning. The first of five C-N runs in the eighth inning came on a Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) single to left. The other four runs scored with two outs. With the bases loaded, Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) singled to right to make it a 9-2 game. Next batter Sebastian Rodriguez (Greensboro, N.C.) cleared the bases with a double to trim the deficit to 9-5.
MHU created some more cushion in the bottom half of the eighth inning. An RBI single and sac fly made it an 11-5 game. Two freebies late in the frame plated another run.
C-N would plate three more runs in the ninth inning. Pinch-hitting, Kylan Hornbuckle (Boaz, Ala) launched his first career home run over the center field wall to bring the Eagles within five.
Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) followed with a solo blast as well. His first of the year made it a 12-8 game in the ninth.
MHU's starter Collin Chappel fired six scoreless innings for his second win of the year. He walked five and allowed four hits with just two strikeouts.
Ryan Higgins (Spotsylvania, Va.) suffered the loss, his fourth of the year. He allowed six runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
The Lions scored their 12 runs on 12 hits, while C-N posted eight runs on nine hits.
Game Two: Carson-Newman 7, Mars Hill 6
The rubber match of the series had all kinds of fireworks early on.
Three doubles helped Carson-Newman jump out to a 2-0 lead. Batting leadoff for the first time in his career, Floyd flipped a double down the left field to start the game. It wasn't until two outs when the next two doubles came. Bradley Soto Diaz's (Davenport, Fla.) first RBI of the finale was a double to center. Kilgore also followed with a two-out two-bagger to extend the lead to 2-0.
Mars Hill saw the baseball well against Kolton Casson in the opening inning. Three consecutive singles loaded the bases to begin the bottom of the first. Gavyn Miller scored the first run of the inning on a sac fly. The next three MHU hitters plated four more runs. Two singles and a Bumgarner two-run triple pushed the Lions ahead 5-2 after one inning.
C-N would get a run back in the second. Two freebies and a Jacob Rogers (Dandridge, Tenn) single loaded the bases with two outs. Soto Diaz was hit by a 2-2 pitch to help make it a two-run game.
Casson would settle in for Carson-Newman. He did allow base hits early in the second and third innings but worked around it to pitch scoreless frames to keep the deficit at two.
MHU broke through against Casson again in the fourth. Aguilar opened the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff home run to double the Lions lead after four innings.
Carson-Newman's only two hits in innings three and five were Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) base hits. The junior singled in the third and tripled in the fifth but C-N failed to bring him home.
That would change in the top of the sixth. Bolton and Rogers started the frame with singles. Floyd followed by blasting his ninth home run of the year to straightaway center field to level the game at six.
Casson continued to pitch well after the tough start. After the fourth inning long ball he allowed, the sophomore retired nine of the next 10 batters he faced to send the game to the seventh inning tied at six.
Another late-inning long ball lifted the Eagles in front. With one out in the seventh, Nathan's third hit of the series finale was an opposite field home run over the right field wall to make it a 7-6 Carson-Newman lead with three outs to get.
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Casson continued to pitch well and finished off the series win. The right-hander got two groundouts and a strikeout to retire 12 of the final 13 batters he faced to win his seventh game of the season. He struck out five in his fourth complete game of the season and scattered ten hits.
Carson-Newman's seventh inning hero Cole Nathan reached base in all four of his at bats and went three for three at the dish. Floyd led the team in RBI with three. He was one of four that drove in runs in the finale.
The game's only reliever was the one that suffered the loss. Seth Coxie gave up the go-ahead blast to lose his second game of the year.
Carson-Newman begins a five-game homestand next Tuesday afternoon versus Shorter. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 pm. A video stream of the weekend series is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/flobase. The game can be heard on cneagles.com/live. Fans can also watch the radio crew at work with a feed of press row on YouTube.
