Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The first three-game series of the 2016 season sends Carson-Newman to Brevard with the first game slated to begin at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon at Gil Coan Field.
"It's about us playing against the baseball," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "It's us taking care of the process versus results so we just have to play the baseball. The leaders on this team set the tone in the locker room. No matter what we do we are going to prepare the same way we've always prepared."
The Eagles (9-5) enter the weekend riding a seven-game winning streak. In 2015, C-N reeled off eight-straight wins from March 27-April 7 with the last winning streak of 10 or more games coming from March 17-29, 2010 when the Eagles won 11 consecutive.
Griffin enters the weekend with 297 as the coach at Carson-Newman as he could reach 300 wins in his 11th season as the skipper. In 17 seasons as a coach between C-N and Tusculum, Griffin has 481 total wins as he angles for 500 in his career.
Carson-Newman and Brevard (6-11, 1-2) have met 25 times on the diamond with the Eagles holding a 22-3 advantage in the all-time series. The Tornados have won at least one game in a three-game set in three of the last four years with 2014 being the exception.
In each of the last two trips to Brevard, C-N has taken two out of three games and is looking for a sweep for the first time on the road in the series since March 11-12, 2011 when the Eagles won 14-1, 10-4 and 8-3.
Brevard was picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the league's preseason coaches' poll and enter the weekend having lost five of its last six games and 11 of its last 13 contests since beginning the year 4-0. The pitching staff has allowed at least 12 runs in each of the last three losses.
The Tornados are hitting .314 as a team this season to rank fourth in the league but have scored 108 runs, eighth in the SAC.
The pitchers have accumulated an 8.06 earned run average this season ranking 10th while totaling a league-low 86 strikeouts in 17 games. The 81 walks and 214 hits allowed by Brevard this season are a league-high.
Frist baseman Hunter Donaldson was the lone representative for the team on the preseason all-conference teams sliding into the second team. The senior is hitting .271 on the season with eight RBIs on the year. The right-hander has also made four starts this season compiling a 1-2 record with a 4.79 ERA.
Junior outfielder Josh Hall has paced the bats with two home runs and 13 RBIs with a .333 batting average. His eight stolen bases rank sixth in the league.
All three games will be available with an audio stream by visiting cneagles.com/live 10 minutes prior to the first pitch of each as the Eagle Sports Network will provide pregame coverage before the play-by-play action.
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