WISE, Va. – In the third meeting all-time UVA-Wise picked up its first victory over Carson-Newman Tuesday evening at Stallard Field winning 10-4.
The loss for the Eagles (16-12) is the first setback against a school from Virginia in 10 total contests since April 30, 1997 when Virginia Intermont earned a 4-2 victory.
UVA-Wise (10-9) snapped a five-game losing streak while picking up its third win at home this season in nine tries.
"[Their coach] was saying we're not hitting the ball very well to this point," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "That was a kiss of death when you talk to a coach before a game because they came out and swung it extremely well. We put a lot of balls in play but today's conditions weren't very conducive to fly balls with our lefties."
The Cavaliers lit the scoreboard first in their first at-bat of the day. After the leadoff man was retired Ty Lighton reached on a bunt single, stole second and moved to third base on a base hit by Steven Klaiber. A double from Ben Coffman scored Lighton and a ground out from Tye Marshall scored Klaiber to make it 2-0 after an inning.
UVA-Wise added three more runs in the bottom of the third stanza. Lighton walked to start the inning and was on second base with one out when Coffman bounced a ball through the right side to score Lighton. Marshall followed with a two-run home run to left field on the first pitch to push the margin to 5-0.
The Eagles put up two runs in the top of the fourth. Junior first baseman Paul Kirby (Goodlettsville, Tenn.) lined a base hit into center field to begin the inning. With one out, freshman left fielder Ian Pung (Knoxville, Tenn.) walked on four pitches. Both runners moved up a bag on a sacrifice bunt by junior right fielder Hunter Wood (College Grove, Tenn.). Junior catcher Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) blooped a single into center field to score both runners to pull C-N within three runs at 5-2.
The home team scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth as the first five batters reached to extend the lead to 10-2. Ryan Dickt and Vinny Kuchenbuch singles allowed the first two men to score in the frame. A fielder's choice, a single and a ground out capped the scoring for the Cavaliers.
Following a fly out by Jones in the seventh, junior second baseman Joey Selitto (Newton, N.J.) reached on an infield single and junior center fielder Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) doubled to put a pair in scoring position. Selitto scored on a ground out by junior shortstop Jimmy Rice (Middlesex, N.J.) and Addington crossed the plate on a fielding error at third base to shift the score to 10-4.
Carson-Newman tallied just six hits on the day as Addington and Kirby each tallied a pair of two-hit outings. The Eagles used four pitchers as freshman Grant Rabbitts (Johnson City, Tenn.) was pinned with his first career loss going 2.1 innings while giving up five earned runs on six hits, one walk and one strikeout.
UVA-Wise pounded out 16 hits in the game as Marshall led five players with multi-hit days by going 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs.
Carson-Newman returns to South Atlantic Conference play this weekend to begin a nine-game string of home games at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. Coker makes the journey to start a three-game series Friday at 3 p.m. as all games will be available on cneagles.com/live 10 minutes prior to the first pitch.
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