Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the first time in a decade, the Carson-Newman Eagles (13-14) will take on the Bluefield State Blues (8-8) for a two-game series at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex with games scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday on Wednesday.

Carson-Newman is coming off of a three-game series at Coker where the Eagles lost two of three games for the fifth straight South Atlantic Conference series. In the series, the Eagles were 2-for-30 at the plate with two outs and 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position. Despite the poor performance at the plate, Carson-Newman was one inning away from taking two out of three. Head coach Tom Griffin's club took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning of game two on Saturday before surrendering four runs in the frame to fall in the series finale.

The Eagle offense has scuffled at the plate over the last 15 games seeing its average fall from .289 to .263 in that span. Currently, Carson-Newman ranks tenth out of 11 teams in the SAC in team batting average.

Things have been just as difficult on the mound. Leadoff hitters are reaching base at a .481 clip during a 4-10 stretch against Eagle pitching. After a great start to the season, the bullpen has seen a gigantic leap in earned run average over the last month of the season. In March, Carson-Newman relievers have piled up an 8.10 ERA.

Bluefield State is coming off of a doubleheader sweep of Elizabeth City where the Blues blanked their opponent by a total of 16-0 in two games.

As a team, the Blues have a .249 batting average and a 5.84 ERA. Dale Davis is the team leader with a .444 batting average and 11 RBI while Ridge Sibold is 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA on the year.

The Eagles lead the all-time series 6-3 with Carson-Newman winning the last meeting between the two schools 9-3 on February 7, 2004 in Augusta, Ga. Carson-Newman plated five runs in the sixth inning thanks in part to a three-run home run by right fielder Nathan Gravley.

A video stream is available for both contests by visiting cneagles.com/live with pregame coverage of each contest slated to begin at 1:50 p.m.

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