Eagles fall 10-2 versus Lincoln Memorial

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters (9-4-1, 7-1 South Atlantic Conference) led wire-to-wire in a 10-2 victory over the Carson-Newman Eagles (10-7, 5-5 SAC) Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

In the top of the first inning, Lincoln Memorial cranked out four consecutive hits with one out that scored three runs with RBI hits from Scott Miller, Kelvin Brito and Josh Coker.

Junior right fielder Cody Fox (Seymour, Tenn.) launched his second home run of the season on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the second inning with two outs to pull the Eagles with a 3-1 score.

Eagle starting pitcher Quinton Yocom (Cable, Ohio) retired nine of ten batters until he hit Ryan Burlison with a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt, Jacob West singled to put runners at the corners. Yocom induced a pop out, but an error by sophomore third basemen Brandon Roberts (Davie, Fla.) brought home the visiting team's fourth run.

The Railsplitters tacked on a run in the top of the sixth inning on back-to-back hits by Coker and designated hitter Colin Buckner to make it a 5-1 game.

An RBI ground out by junior shortstop Bryan Everhart (Greeneville, Tenn.) brought home junior center fielder Evan Kirkpatrick (Jefferson City, Tenn.) to pull the Eagles within three runs.

The road team put the game out of reach in the top of the ninth inning as they batted around and scored five runs concluding with a three-run home run by Brito over the left field fence.

"He's our bulldog and you want to keep him in there," head coach Tom Griffin said of his thought process heading into the ninth where Yocom started the frame. "The relievers are the kind of guys that get ground balls."

Yocom took the loss for his second straight start as he tossed a career-high eight innings giving up six runs on five earned runs on 11 hits.

"As much as it hurts and it should hurt as a competitor," Griffin said of the loss. "You need to realize that the sun is going to come up tomorrow and we are going to have an opportunity to do something that we are blessed to do."

Carson-Newman will try again tomorrow in a doubleheader against Lincoln Memorial with game one scheduled to begin at noon. Coverage will begin at 11:50 a.m. on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live.

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