Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Off to their best start since the 2009 season, the Carson-Newman Eagles (3-1) open South Atlantic Conference play this weekend as they play host to the Brevard Tornados (1-0). The two clubs will play Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. and play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at noon.

The biggest reason the Eagles have won three of the first four games has been a group of pitchers that collectively has an ERA of 2.97 and is yielding a .244 batting average against.

"It's definitely our strength," head coach Tom Griffin said of his pitching staff. "We knew that going in. Our starting pitching and what we saw with the relievers the last four games has really been encouraging. The fact that we got to play yesterday and throw some more guys is very helpful for us."

Offensively, Carson-Newman is hitting .291 as a team but has scored just two runs in the first three inning compared to 19 in innings four through nine.

Junior outfielder Cody Fox (Seymour, Tenn.) is leading the way offensively with a .375 batting, two doubles, a triple, a home run and three RBIs. With a four-game hitting streak to start the season, Fox has been the most reliable player in the middle of the lineup.

"He is a very confident kid," Griffin said of Fox. "He is strong. When you're strong and hitting, sometimes fundamentals don't have to be good. If you're having a bad day and you're not linked up top-to-bottom, strength can overcome those type of deficiencies."

In 2013, the Eagles won two of three games against Brevard and Carson-Newman holds an 18-2 advantage in the all-time series. The Tornados were picked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll and are coming off of an 11-3 victory over Montreat on Wednesday.

"I think they are very disciplined," Griffin said of this weekend's opponent. "They play hard. They are well-coached. The kids play the game the right way. Last year, we had some very good battles with them. "

In the contest on Wednesday, Brevard used nine different pitchers and held Montreat to just two hits in the final seven innings of play.

Offensively, six players had hits, but freshman left fielder Brock Helton and sophomore third basemen Chad Fisher combined for seven of the eleven hits and eight of the ten RBIs.

Carson-Newman will try to start the conference season the way they began 2013 when the Eagles swept Tusculum at home scoring 21 runs in the three game series.

Each game this weekend will be available with a video stream of the action. Coverage begins ten minutes prior to the first pitch of each contest on the Eagle Sports Network.