JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In a rare nonconference game between the two schools Carson-Newman hosts Tusculum Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a 2 p.m. first pitch.
The South Atlantic Conference moved to a format two years ago that leaves two schools off of each team's schedule as the Pioneers and Eagles are not slated to meet in the league's regular season.
Carson-Newman (6-5) is coming off of a series victory of Northwood over the weekend and hold a 5-1 record inside of the friendly confines this season.
"We got to get better," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said following Sunday's win over Northwood. "We have to get better at-bats. Some guys have to get better with their at-bats, with their approaches and their mindsets. It's not a fact of ability. What hitters go through is questioning and thinking. Instead of worrying about this pitch, they are worrying about the last at-bat. And with our pitchers, we need to get some guys some more work."
Tuesday restores a rivalry that dates to 1990 as the Eagles hold a narrow 46-43 edge in the first 89 games of the series. C-N won four of the five meetings in 2016 but Tusculum (5-5) eliminated the Eagles with their lone win over Griffin's group with a 9-7 nightcap win in the final elimination game of the 2016 SAC Championships.
This game is the first time the two sides will square off at the SDBC in the last 12 meetings dating back to 2013 when the Eagles swept the then 19th-ranked Pioneers in February. That season was also the last time that C-N beat a SAC foe four times in a year prior to 2016.
The last time the two programs met in a non-conference regular season game came on Feb. 24, 2006 when the Pioneers picked up a 7-4 victory at Pioneer Park.
"The schedule has helped us," Griffin said. "North Georgia is a good ball club. [Northwood] is a good ball club. Belmont Abbey was a solid club. Limestone was a veteran club. I think we are prepared. We are going to work on some specific things getting some guys some feel-good."
To find the last game where the two sides met in a game not related to the SAC, it came in the 2008 NCAA South Regional when C-N beat 13th-ranked Tusculum 9-3 on May 17.
Tusculum edged out Newberry for second place in the preseason coaches' poll with 90 points after placing third in the league a season ago. The Pioneers have a pair of elite pitchers to replace in 2016 National Pitcher of the Year, Placido Torres, an eighth-round pick of the New York Mets, and Devan Watts, a 17th round selection of the Atlanta Braves. One first-team pick and a trio of second-teamers lead the charge entering the year.
The Pioneers were an at-large selection to the 2016 NCAA Southeast Regional making its seventh postseason and first since 2012 falling to USC Aiken in the first game before beating Belmont Abbey and Mount Olive and bowing out to the Pacers on May 22.
Coach Doug Jones saw his team start 1-3 but the group has won four of its last six games including taking two out of three games against Belmont Abbey and Bellarmine the last two weekends.
On the young season, Tusculum has scored the second-fewest runs of any league team posting just five runs per night despite being the third most difficult team in the conference to strikeout.
A year after being the top pitching staff in the SAC, the Pioneers are second with a 4.01 ERA as a team registering a blistering 10 punch outs per nine innings pitched and walking the fewest base runners at 27.
John Topoleski has been the top hitter to start the year ranking sixth in the league with a .455 batting average having hit in every game but one on the year with six two-hit games.
Preseason second-team All-SAC second baseman Zack Finchum is just 4-for-32 to begin the year while second-team first baseman Nick Lacina is off to a better start at 10 hits in 30 at-bats.
The Eagle Sports Network has all of the sights and sounds covered with video and audio streams available on cneagles.com/live starting at 1:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to First Pitch".
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