Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman Eagles (17-15) look for program victory No. 750 when the Limestone Saints (10-21) Tuesday afternoon for a 3 p.m. first pitch at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. The baseball program's first year of action was in 1928 and the current record stands at 749-583-6.
With about three weeks left in the season, the Eagles have been playing their best baseball of the season. Carson-Newman has won eight of its last 10 games as the offense is rounding into form with the pitching staff.
"We've got confidence in our pitching and our bullpen," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "Our defense has been steady all year. I think offensively there seems to be a better flow. Mentally, we feel better about things. I think we are at a good point right now."
The bats have raised the team batting average to a season-high .292 while the pitching staff has righted the ship after a shaky start to the month of March.
With a nonconference weekend against Winston-Salem State (22-8) coming up this weekend, the Eagles have a chance to solidify things prior to a season-ending stretch run that consists of eight of the final nine games of the year being played on the road.
A nonconference rematch with Limestone begins things for the Eagles looking to avenge a 2-1, 14-inning loss on opening day of 2015 in Gaffney, S.C. Carson-Newman committed four errors on February 4 and only mustered six hits. Seven pitchers were used including Tuesday's expected starter Logan Shaftner (Lexington, Ky.). The senior went 5.2 innings in his first career start allowing one earned run on four hits with two strikeouts.
Nine pitchers were used by the Saints in the contest as the offense was paced by rightfielder Brett Gemmell who went 3-for-5 in the game.
The Saints have won 11 of the 21 meetings between the two programs and are riding a four-game winning streak entering Tuesday. Limestone is 1-5 this year against South Atlantic Conference schools with its lone win coming against Carson-Newman.
Offensively, the Saints have scored the second-fewest runs (15) and walked (80) the second-fewest times in Conference Carolinas this year while the pitching staff has yielded the third-most bases on balls (135) in the league on the year.
Tuesday's game will be broadcast in high definition with a separate audio stream available by visiting cneagles.com/live courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network.
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