Carson-Newman Baseball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman will take its first road trip in non-conference play in over a month when it travels to face UVA-Wise Tuesday afternoon for a 4 p.m. first pitch from Stallard Field.
Following the trip to the Old Dominion State, Carson-Newman (16-11) will play nine games at the Silver Diamond Complex before its next road trip as the Eagles try to regain their form prior to the final stretch of the year.
The Eagles have won nine of the last 10 non-conference games but have just a 1-4 record in road games outside of South Atlantic Conference play. The last road game out of the league came on Feb. 10 at Shorter.
Tuesday will be the third meeting between the two programs with each of the first two contests favoring Carson-Newman over the past two seasons.
A three-game series was originally slated for Valentine's weekend but weather limited the series to just one game, a 1-0 win for the Eagles in extra innings. The game time temperature was 25 degrees, the coldest game at Mossy Creek by five degrees since 1991. Vince Apicella picked up the win while winning conference and region Player of the Week after becoming the lone pitcher in the last decade to pitch a complete game in an extra-inning contest. Each team had just three hits in the game as an error by Brett Yates allowed C-N to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
Carson-Newman has played nine games against schools from Virginia with the last loss coming on April 30, 1997, a 4-2 decision to Virginia Intermont. Eight of the nine games have come in the state of Tennessee with last year's game against the Cavaliers being the lone trip to Virginia.
The Cavaliers have lost five consecutive games without a win in Mountain East Conference play this year while compiling a 2-5 record in home games in 2016. The last season UVA-Wise recorded a winning record in home games was four years ago during the 2012 campaign by going 10-8.
On the mound, the Cavaliers rank 148th in the country in team earned run average at 5.35. The group of hurlers are one of the least likely teams to strikeout opponents averaging 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings, 238th in Division II.
At the plate, UVA-Wise has scored just 100 runs in 18 games this season ranking 175th nationally with just nine home runs on the year.
Eric Cain will be on the microphone for the Eagle Sports Network beginning at 1:50 p.m. on cneagles.com/live with an audio broadcast with play-by-play coverage following the pregame show.
- CN -