Three Eagles earn All-SAC honors, Cochran named all-defense
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Four Carson-Newman baseball players were recognized in the South Atlantic Conference’s all-conference honors. Kolton Casson, Logan Floyd and Bradley Soto Diaz were all selected to the second team, while Carson Cochran was named an all-defensive catcher by the league office on Thursday afternoon.
VIDEO: Kolton Casson Interview
VIDEO: Bradley Soto Diaz Interview
VIDEO: Carson Cochran Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Four Carson-Newman baseball players were recognized in the South Atlantic Conference's all-conference honors. Kolton Casson, Logan Floyd and Bradley Soto Diaz were all selected to the second team, while Carson Cochran was named an all-defensive catcher by the league office on Thursday afternoon.
With three players announced on the all-conference teams, it marks the 11th straight season that C-N has multiple players on any of the three all-conference teams.
Casson becomes the first C-N pitcher to earn all-league honors in consecutive seasons since Vince Apicella in 2015 and 2016. The sophomore tied for the league-lead in wins with nine in just 12 starts. In 66 innings, Casson posted a 3.27 ERA with 66 strikeouts both marks of which are fourth-best in the conference this season. He recorded a season-high nine strikeouts twice, in outings against #3 Catawba and #19 Wingate.
The right-hander had two dazzling starts this season. On February 14th, he fired his first career complete game shutout in a 4-0 win over Lincoln Memorial. Over seven innings, he struck out five and allowed just four hits. One month later, he did it for a second time. Casson fired a second complete game shutout, scattering eight hits in a 7-0 win against Tusculum on March 21st. Overall, his four complete games this season are second-most in the SAC. Five of his 12 starts this season were scoreless outings.
"It was definitely a tougher year," Carsson said. "Coming in as a sophomore, they have a lot more scouting on you, so they have a better idea what to do. It's just all about the team effort. We started out a little rocky, but toward the end of this year we finished pretty strong. It's been a good year so far."
Logan Floyd is an All-SAC player for the third time in his career, becoming the first Eagle since Derek Long to be an all-conference player in three consecutive seasons. The main reason Floyd is not a first-team All-SAC first baseman is because the conference's player of the year also plays first and is one of just two players with a better batting average than Floyd in the league this season.
The junior produced the best season of his career this regular season, hitting .423 with ten home runs and 56 RBI. He is just .015 away from tying Tyler Thompson's program-best mark for batting average in a season. Floyd has 74 hits, with 31 of them going for extra bases. His 19 doubles are tied for eighth-most in a season.
Floyd has 25 multi-hit and 18 multi-RBI games this season. He enters postseason play riding a 13-game hitting streak and 31-game on base streak, both of which are his longest streaks of the season.
"I want to thank God, my teammates and coaches and family," Floyd said. "They have all been super supportive throughout this journey of mine this year. It was all about believing in myself and changing up my summer routine. That really helped pay off my goal for trying to hit for more power this year."
In his lone season with the Eagles, Soto Diaz earns his first career All-SAC honor. The senior outfielder has been a consistent hitter for C-N all season. His .392 batting average, 56 hits, 14 doubles and 38 RBI are all second-most on the club, only behind Floyd. Soto Diaz has also launched six home runs, including one in each game of the Wingate series in early April.
Soto Diaz has 16 multi-hit and eight multi-RBI games this season. His 15-game hitting streak early in the season is the longest hitting streak by an Eagles hitter this season. He enters the conference tournament riding a 17-game on-base streak. Soto Diaz leads the Eagles in stolen bases with 12.
"I want to give God the glory," Soto Diaz said. "He is my strength and my base and that's where everything comes from. The coaches did a really good job working with me on the little things and especially my teammates because we all do a good job supporting each other."
Carson Cochran becomes the third catcher in program history to earn a gold glove, joining Gooch Greer and Ethan Goforth. Goforth won consecutive gold gloves in 2018 and 2019. Cochran is just the 11th Eagles to earn all-defensive honors.
Recovering from injury, the redshirt-sophomore led the SAC in runners caught stealing percentage at .538 this season. He threw out 14 of the 26 runners that tried to steal on him this season. Overall, he posted a .977 fielding percentage with just four errors in 140 putouts.
"I'm just extremely grateful to all of my coaches and teammates who have supported me throughout this entire journey," Cochran said. "It's had a lot of up and downs, through injuries last year and even my freshman year as well. I just would not be in this spot without the support of my coaches and teammates and of course parents as well. And all of this is made possible because of the gifts that I have been given by God. I'm just extremely honored and blessed."
Carson-Newman (31-17) begins South Atlantic Conference Tournament play tomorrow afternoon against third-seeded #21 Lenoir-Rhyne (35-11-1). First pitch on Friday afternoon in Wingate, North Carolina is at 3:00 p.m. All of C-N's games this weekend at the SAC tournament will air with a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
