JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman Eagles (3-2) defeated the King Tornado (1-5) 7-4 Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex as the home team cranked out a season-high seven runs and 11 hits.
"The flow of hitting and consistency gets better," head coach Tom Griffin said. "It was encouraging to see that. Midweek games, staying focused after the weekend that we had was good. The good thing right now is I think we have the ability in our lineup to have different people carry us."
Carson-Newman starter Logan Shaftner (Lexington, Ky.) allowed a leadoff single to Heath Loyd. After a line out and a strikeout, Tyler Raymond sliced the first pitch he saw into leftcenter field to give King a 1-0 lead.
The Eagles took the lead in the bottom of the first frame as they sent eight men to the plate. Sophomore centerfielder Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) and junior rightfielder Joe Tipton (Dandridge, Tenn.) walked on nine pitches to begin the inning. A sacrifice fly from freshman designated hitter Joe Rotelli (Morganville, N.J.) tied the game at one. Sophomore catcher Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) laced the first pitch he saw through the right side of the infield to give the home team a 2-1 lead.
King tied the score in the top of the third inning. With two outs, three straight singles capped by a liner into centerfield by Raymond brought home the tying run to make it 2-2.
Neither team had an extra-base hit until the bottom of the fifth inning. Back-to-back one out doubles down the left field line by senior second basemen Bo Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) and Rotelli made it a 3-2 Eagle lead. One out later, Jones ripped a double down the right field line to plate Rotelli and extend the lead to 4-2.
Freshman leftfielder Cade Snapp (Seymour, Tenn.) started the sixth inning with a double off of the wall in left for his first collegiate hit and scored on a sacrifice fly from Tipton to make it 5-2.
The Tornado inched closer in the seventh inning as Carson-Newman used four pitchers in the inning. Two of the first three batters walked as designated hitter Forrest Haga cleared the bases to pull the visiting squad within a run at 5-4
A pair of errors by the Tornado allowed the first two men to reach in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Eagles. With one out, senior shortstop Bryan Everhart (Greeneville, Tenn.) blooped a ball into leftcenter field to bring home the two runners and extend the lead to 7-4.
Shaftner recorded a career-high eight strikeouts over 6.1 innings while allowing three earned runs on nine hits and two walks while throwing 113 pitches, 72 strikes to earn his second career victory.
Carson-Newman tallied at least one hit in each of the first seven innings as eight different players had a hit in the contest. Jones led the way with a 3-for-5 day at the park with a double and two RBI.
Senior righthander Carson Bryant (Fletcher, N.C.) tossed 2.2 scoreless innings of four-strikeout, one-walk baseball to earn his second career save. Bryant retired the last six batters he faced.
"It was a good day for us," Griffin said. "I thought it was very encouraging for our guys. I thought our bench did a good job of keeping the energy up because those are the things we want to be really good at."
The Eagles begin a four-game road trip Friday afternoon with the first of a three-game series at Brevard with first pitch slated for 2 p.m.
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