Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The chance to play in the South Atlantic Conference Championship is on the line when the Carson-Newman Eagles (23-18, 11-16 SAC) travel to the Tar Heel State for a three-game series with the Wingate Bulldogs (24-18, 13-14 SAC) beginning Friday night at 6 p.m. at Ron Christopher Stadium. The series wraps up with a doubleheader Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m.
Carson-Newman enters the weekend tied with Lenoir-Rhyne as the No. 8 seed for next week's SAC Championship as the Eagles hold a tiebreak in the head-to-head thanks to a 2-1 record this season. The Bears travel to Mars Hill this weekend and if everything holds the Eagles would need to at worst equal the Bears' weekend to hold the final spot.
A sweep over the Bulldogs plus some help would give the Eagles the fifth spot in the league as Brevard (13-16 SAC) is currently sixth and off this weekend while Anderson, seventh, hosts Lincoln Memorial. Carson-Newman has tiebreaks over the Tornados and the Trojans having won series this season against the clubs.
"They know what's at stake," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "They know what they have to do. I think there was a huge disappointment last week at Newberry. We don't feel like we played our best series making too many mental and physical mistakes. You control your own destiny which is nice at this point in the year."
Despite being swept by Newberry last weekend, Carson-Newman is in a good position to finish with an over .500 record for the first time since the 2012 club went 28-26. The Eagles are 14-5 in their last 19 games stretching back to March 15.
"I think our guys have realized that we have played some very good baseball against some very good teams," Griffin said. "We have pitched it well. We have played very good defense. We've had great hitting and timely hitting. We've seen all three of those done in one game. We want to make sure that we take the fact that we can be a good team every day that we go out there because we have done it before."
Wingate is one of the most prolific scoring teams in the nation averaging 8.4 runs per game while scoring 345 runs on the year, a number that ranks 11th at the Division II level. The number that sticks out for the Bulldogs is 61, the number of home runs hit by the unit this year as they lead the country in roundtrippers. Seven players are ranked inside the top-10 in homers led by 11 from Thomas Spitz who is 26th nationally.
"They are going to hit the ball," Griffin said. "They are a very good hitting club and have been for a very long time. We have to pitch it better. We had too many two-strike hits that Newberry had against us. Is that stuff or mentality? We feel it's a little of both but it could be more of the mentality part. We have to make sure that ball stays in the ball park to give us a chance."
The Bulldogs have lost 10 of its last 13 games overall and five of their last six in league play against the top-two in the SAC, Catawba and Newberry.
Wingate holds a 39-34 advantage in the all-time series thanks to a recent swing that includes sweeps in each of the last three seasons. The Eagles have lost 10 straight outings to the Bulldogs with the last Carson-Newman victory coming on April 2, 2011, a 5-3 win at Wingate. The Eagles took two out of three games that season.
"Wingate is a very difficult place to play against a very good team that has done very well against us in the past," Griffin said. "It's not an easy trip, but God does not want us to have this thing to be easy. There's a purpose and a reason for all this to happen. We need to keep that in perspective and these challenges are great lessons for all of us."
Fans can listen to each game over the weekend by visiting cneagles.com/live for the audio stream on the Eagle Sports Network.
