Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – While the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex is being cleaned off from a week's worth of snow, the Carson-Newman Eagles (8-4, 6-3 South Atlantic Conference) look to play baseball this weekend against the rival Tusculum Pioneers (4-6, 3-3 SAC). Day one of the series will be at Pioneer Park for a 4 p.m. first pitch with Sunday's schedule yet to be determined.
The entire team has spent portions of the last 24 hours working to clean the field of several inches of snow that pelted Mossy Creek over the last week. Seven seniors have led the club in preparing the diamond for play this weekend.
"I think they've done a tremendous job," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We talked all fall that we had a lot of seniors, guys who have been around and know the program and what the expectations are. There's a lot of snow and we want to do all we can to see if we can play this weekend."
With an early start to the 2015 season, the Eagles have had to deal with a lot of different circumstances. Last week at Shorter, Carson-Newman played in snow with heavy winds and sub-30 degree temperatures. Instead of having a home series against Anderson, the Eagles had to go to South Carolina to play. Needless to say, Griffin's group is ready to play in any type of condition that Mother Nature throws at it.
"We practice in all types of conditions," Griffin said. "We literally work in every kind of situation you are going to get outside from throwing a wet ball to playing in temperatures that we would probably never play a game in. We feel like we've prepared our guys and our guys have prepared themselves. We feel like we haven't played our best baseball yet we went 3-1 last week on the road. I think that says a lot about the character of a team."
Tusculum and Carson-Newman have played tight in the all-time series history with the Eagles holding a 39-36 advantage in the all-time series. In 2014, the Pioneers took two out of three games at Pioneer Park, but the last time the two teams tangled in Mossy Creek the Eagles swept Tusculum in 2013, a season where Carson-Newman went 4-0 against Tusculum.
"They have a great tradition over there that they have built," Griffin said. "We know that they are prepared. We enjoy playing them because it's a good battle. It doesn't matter who is doing what. It's a competitive game and a good atmosphere for baseball."
Tusculum brings an offense to Mossy Creek to face off against a Carson-Newman team that has had three straight Astroturf SAC Pitcher of the Week honorees and a hand grenading unit that is top three in the league in every single statistical category.
The Pioneers are last in the conference in batting average (.249), on-base percentage (.327) and walks (34) this season despite outfielder Jalen Shuffler ranking third in the SAC with four home runs. Defensively, Tusculum is 10th out of 11 teams in fielding percentage with a .938 clip.
Each game will be available with a video stream by visiting cneagles.com/live as the Eagle Sports Network brings fans coverage of each game of the series with pregame coverage beginning 10 minutes prior to the first pitch.
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