GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – In game one of a series against the Tusculum Pioneers (5-6, 3-4 South Atlantic Conference), the Carson-Newman Eagles (8-5, 6-4 SAC) set a school record with 20 strikeouts in a 4-3 loss at Pioneer Park Saturday night. The previous record with 18 strikeouts in an April 19, 1997 loss against Elon.
"Quinton Yocom and Michael Cogliano were outstanding tonight," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "Their pitching dominated our hitters. We had some costly mental mistakes on defense."
The Eagles lit the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning. Senior first basemen Evan Jurjevic (New Carlisle, Ind.) started the inning with a double down the left field line. After a ground out, sophomore catcher Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) laced a two-bagger down the right field line to plate Jurjevic and make it a 1-0 lead.
Tusculum tied the score at one in the top of the fourth inning. The Pioneers loaded the bases with no outs and plated a run on a single by Jeremiah Tullidge. Carson-Newman starter Quinton Yocom (Cable, Ohio) struck out a batter and induced a double play to end the threat.
Nick Rodriguez began the Tusculum fifth inning with a double down the right field line on a 1-1 pitch. A sacrifice bunt moved him to third base and Rodriguez crossed the plate on a fielder's choice to give the Pioneers their first lead at 2-1.
Jones opened the bottom of the fifth frame with a six-pitch walk. Senior rightfielder Cody Fox (Seymour, Tenn.) walked on four pitches and after a punch out, junior third basemen Brandon Roberts (Davie, Fla.) drew a base on balls to load the bases. The fourth free pass issued in the frame brought home a run to tie the score at two as sophomore centerfielder Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) walked on five pitches. After a pitching change, Fox crossed the plate on a wild pitch to give Carson-Newman the lead back at 3-2.
Yocom retired the first batter of the top of the ninth inning before issuing his first walk of the day. A wild pitch moved pinch runner Tanner Maloof into scoring position. On a 2-1 pitch, Jim Tolle slapped a single to right field to tie the score at three.
With one out in the top of the tenth inning, back-to-back singles ended the day for Yocom and brought sophomore lefty Justin Evans (Salisbury, N.C.) to the mound. Evans was able to get the lead runner against the next batter on a fielder's choice. Senior righty Michael Cogliano (Medford, N.J.) entered the game and needed one pitch to get a ground out to first base and end the threat.
Carson-Newman had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the tenth inning, but back-to-back strikeouts on eight pitches ended the Eagles threat.
Tusculum began the 13th inning with a single from Chris Waylock. After the next two batters were retired, Griffin went to the bullpen and called upon junior righty Dustin Batson (Pisgah Forest, N.C.). Batson threw a wild pitch and allowed a base hit by Tolle to give the Pioneers a 4-3 edge.
A pair of two-out singles were stranded by the Eagles in the bottom of the 13th inning.
Yocom went a career-high 9.1 innings while striking out a career-high 14 batters and yielding three earned runs on seven hits and one walk.
The Eagles were held without a hit in 10 of the 13 innings while tallying two hits apiece in the second, tenth and 13th innings.
Tusculum's Devan Watts improved to 1-1 by working 8.2 innings of scoreless relief by punching out 12 batters, walking two and allowing four hits.
The series will wrap up Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. with a doubleheader at Pioneer Park. The games will have an audio broadcast provided by the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live.
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