JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman baseball team concludes its fall work with its annual Blue and Orange World Series in a best-of-five intrasquad series led by assistant coaches Lee Haeberle (Blue) and Brandon Roberts (Orange).
"We have talked about it this year that the scrimmages in the fall have had the intensity of the end of the year world series," Carson-Newman baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "As coaches that is fantastic because we are looking for that passion. If we are doing that in a fall scrimmage on a Sunday afternoon then it shows that they understand that every day is a competition. You try to win and you don't go through the motions."
All of the games will be held at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. Game one will begin at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon with game two slated for an 11:30 a.m. start time Saturday. First pitch on Sunday is slated for 1 p.m. with the series wrapping up with 2 p.m. start times on Monday and Tuesday.
The Blue side will be the home team for three of the five contests during the series. American League rules with a designated hitter will be employed for games one, three and five while the National League rules will be used for games two and four.
The draft was held Tuesday morning inside of the baseball offices based on positional groups. Haeberle had the first pick of catchers and selected senior Gooch Greer (Dickson, Tenn.) and the infield as he took senior Eric Lynch (Boonton, N.J.).
Roberts countered with a trio of seniors as infielders Paul Kirby (Goodlettsville, Tenn.) and Jimmy Rice (Middlesex, N.J.) went off the board before outfielder Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio).
The 2015 Orange and Blue World Series was a thriller as catcher Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) smacked a walk-off grand slam to capture the title for the Orange team.
The Most Valuable Players for the series were Roberts for the Blue team and Austin Kearney for the Orange squad.
The winner of the series earns a championship shirt while the losing team has to do field work and paint the facilities.
The team that scores the most total runs over the course of the five contests gets a meal at Gondolier, a five-star restaurant per the Lakeway Press.
Griffin will make his play-by-play debut Friday afternoon with the broadcast on cneagles.com/live. There will be no broadcast scheduled for Saturday but the Eagle Sports Network will be on site to provide commentary for games three through five.
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