GAFFNEY, S.C. – Greg Jones hit a home run and drove in five runs as Carson-Newman captured their first victory of the 2017 season with a 11-5 victory at Limestone Wednesday afternoon at Founders Federal Credit Union Stadium.
The victory for Carson-Newman (1-3) is the first win at Limestone (3-2) since an 8-2 win in Gaffney on April 2, 2008 snapping a string of seven consecutive home wins for the Saints in the series.
"It all started with our training earlier in the week. The guys came in and got after it," coach Tom Griffin said. "Cagle brought in on the mound today. He was able to locate and really pitched well. Ofensively, we had a lot of quality at-bats, and Greg Jones was just tremendous today."
Jones finished the day 2-for-2 with five RBIs and two walks as teammate Gooch Greer hit a pair of bombs and drove in six against the Saints at Mossy Creek on March 29, 2016.
The Eagles came out firing in the opening half frame. Back-to-back singles to left field by Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Eric Lynch (Boonton, N.J.) opened the door for an RBI double to left-center field by Cade Snapp (Seymour, Tenn.). A walk loaded the bases and a fielder's choice allowed Lynch to cross the dish for the game's second run. Following a punch out, senior Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) clobbered a three-run bomb to deep right field to make it 5-0 C-N before Limestone stepped to the plate.
In the last of the first, the first two batters were retired on two pitches. On the third toss of the stanza, Matt Orth stepped in and smacked a home run down the right-field line to get Limestone on the scoreboard and pull within four.
A single from Paul Kirby (Goodlettsville, Tenn.) started the top of the third for the Eagles. Brendan Campbell (Yardley, Pa.) reached on a fielder's choice that erased Kirby on a bunt attempt. Campbell stole second and moved to third base on a throwing error by the catcher. A pop out was the second out of the frame and Jones slashed a base hit into center field with two outs to push the lead to 6-1.
The Saints bounced back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap to three at 6-3. Zach Piazza walked and after a fly out Brennan Strovink singled. Back-to-back one-out RBI base hits to left field by Garrett Lowery and Chase Allen provided the scoring.
The first batter of the sixth for C-N grounded out prior to seeing Jones and Hunter Wood (College Grove, Tenn.) draw walks. Brett Langhorne (Mechanicsville, Va.) stepped to the plate and notched his first hit in the Orange and Blue, a base hit up the middle to score Jones. Addington slapped a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Wood and add to the lead spreading it to 8-3.
With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Snapp drew a walk and stole second base. After a strikeout, a throwing error by Allen at third base allowed Snapp to score advancing the lead to six runs at 9-3.
With two outs and a runner standing on second base, Addington smashed a double off of the fence in right field to score Wood and give the Eagles their first double-digit scoring effort of the season at 10-3.
Orth lined a single to right field with one in the bottom of the eighth and came around to score on a two-out base knock through the left side of the infield by Lowery.
Addington went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored while Snapp, Campbell, Jones and Wood all scored twice on the day.
Orth, Strovink and Lowery each had two hits combining for all but two knocks on the day as Lowery drove in a pair.
The Eagles used three pitchers as starter Kyle Cagle (Fairview, N.C.) went 4 2/3 innings allowing three earned runs on four hits in his C-N debut.
Hunter Dodson (Huntersville, N.C.) retired the lone batter he faced while poaching the victory, the first of his career.
Ryan Victory (Brentwood, Tenn.) earned the save tossing the final four frames of the day striking out three allowing two earned runs on four hits.
"Victory was great today in being able to pound the strike zone and change speeds," Griffin said. "Of course it was huge for Dodson to come in and get an out in a key spot to solidify a great start from Cagle."
Carson-Newman opens the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex this weekend with a three-game series against the Virginia-Wise Cavaliers starting on Friday at 2 p.m. Each contest will be broadcast in high definition on cneagles.com/live with an audio stream available as well starting 10 minutes before the first pitch with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to First Pitch" on the Eagle Sports Network.
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