FOREST CITY, N.C. – The fifth-seeded Wingate Bulldogs (27-20) eliminated the Carson-Newman Eagles (24-21) from the South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship with a 17-9 victory Thursday evening at McNair Stadium.
"Early in the game we didn't get the big hit when we had guys in scoring position," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "They started off with a crooked number from the beginning so we are playing catchup. We gave up a lot of two-strike hits. Credit to their bats. They are good hitting club and obviously they showed why."
Wingate was off and running in the bottom of the first inning. First team All-SAC selection Shane Billings reached on an infield single to start the inning. An error by senior shortstop Bryan Everhart (Greeneville, Tenn.) allowed Michael Godinez to reach safely. First team All-SAC honoree Thomas Spitz pulled a double inside of the third base bag to score Billings for the game's first run. An infield single by Bradley Brown brought home Godinez and Spitz scored on a base hit to rightfield by Josh Clark. The four-run frame was capped by Brown scoring on a fielder's choice.
A walk to Billings and a single to leftfield by Godinez had two men out with two outs for Brown. The SAC Freshman of the Year smacked a rope into centerfield just over the glove of senior Joe Tipton (Dandridge, Tenn.) to extend the Wingate lead to 6-0.
A two-run double to right-centerfield by Spitz with one out and a two-out RBI single through the right side of the infield provided three runs for the Bulldogs in the fourth to extend the lead to 9-0.
A bases loaded walk to Spitz in the bottom of the fifth put the Bulldogs in double figures and a two-out single to centerfield by Brown extended the lead to 12-0.
Carson-Newman was able to manufacture three runs in the top of the sixth stanza. Senior first basemen Evan Jurjevic (New Carlisle, Ind.) singled just passed the shortstop to start the inning. After a walk, Everhart lined a base hit into centerfield to score Jurjevic and put the Eagles on the scoreboard. Back-to-back hit batters allowed a run to score and a wild pitch brought home Everhart to make it 12-3.
Billings blasted a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning over the 25-foot wall in leftfield while an RBI double by Colby Barnette and a ground out in the seventh extended Wingate's lead to 17-3.
Junior third basemen Brandon Roberts (Davie, Fla.) singled to leftfield with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to plate Tipton and make it 17-4.
Carson-Newman scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning as Everhart hit his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot, to straightaway centerfield. The Eagles would load the bases in the inning and Tipton singled to leftfield to plate a run and a two-run single by Roberts to rightfield capped the scoring.
The 17 runs scored by Wingate were the most by a Carson-Newman opponent since the Bulldogs eliminated the Eagles from the 2012 SAC Championships with a 17-2 win on April 21.
Junior starting pitcher Jamie Miller (Wardensville, W.V.) lost for the second time this year allowing a season-high nine runs, seven earned runs on 10 hits with a strikeout and a walk in 3.1 innings pitched.
Tipton, Roberts, Jurjevic and Everhart all had two hits for the Eagles with Everhart and Roberts each driving in three runs.
Carson-Newman has one more scheduled game this season, a trip to Trevecca Nazerene on April 28 for a 7 p.m. first pitch which fans can hear on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live.
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