JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's South Atlantic Conference schedule opens Friday evening at 6 p.m. against the four-time defending regular season champions, Catawba, in the first of a three-game series that concludes with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. at Newman Park.
"It goes through Salisbury," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said of the league's drive to the top of the league. "Coach [Jim] Gantt is one of the best coaches, not just Division II. If you look what he has done with that program in his career it is absolutely incredible. He lives and breathes baseball. He just loves it.
"They are well-coached. They are strong in all areas. It's a group that is very confident and obviously playing really well. This week they have scored quite a bit of runs. That is a great challenge. It's what you are looking for as an athlete and a competitor is to go out and see what we do. We have a very veteran club and we feel confident with the guys that have been here and played against them last year. It's a very good club and we respect the heck out of them. At the same time we are always competing against the baseball. It doesn't matter who is throwing or who is hitting it."
Griffin's group is looking to keep the ball rolling in SAC openers as Carson-Newman (6-6) has earned a sweep in four of the last five seasons while taking two out of three from the Indians in 2015. The last time the Eagles failed to win a SAC starting series was in 2011 when Newberry swept C-N.
Entering this weekend the two schools have faced off on the diamond 97 times as Catawba (7-3) holds a 56-41 advantage including a 25-14 mark since coach Griffin took over in 2006.
The two programs have played a three-game series in Salisbury on nine occasions with Carson-Newman winning the series four times. The Eagles swept a three-game slate on March 16-17, 1996 while taking two of three in 1998, 2003 and 2007.
Since earning the series win in 2007, Carson-Newman is 2-5 on the road against Catawba with its last win coming on March 31, 2012 against a No. 15 Indians group. The last meeting at Newman Park came on April 18, 2014 in a rain shortened series that saw Catawba take the lone game 6-0. There are no players on the roster that played in that game.
In 2016, C-N and Catawba played four times playing in two one-run games and two two-run affairs as the Indians took three of the four including a game in SAC Championships coming back to win 4-2 on April 31 at Smokies Stadium.
Ryan Eberle (Cookeville, Tenn.) went 6.2 innings allowing two earned runs on five hits and four walks with strikeout. Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Jimmy Rice (Middlesex, N.J.) each went 2-for-4 to lead the Eagles offensively.
The four-time reigning regular season champions, Catawba, were picked to finish atop of the table in the league earning eight first-place votes. The biggest gap for the Indians comes with 2015 National Hitter of the Year Will Albertson's graduation and 21st round selection in the MLB Draft to the San Francisco Giants. Catawba has a league-high five players on preseason SAC squads, four of which come on the top unit.
Catawba has won 11 regular season titles, five more than any other program and has not finished outside of the top two in the conference since finishing third in 2007.
The Indians started the season 2-3 but have won five consecutive games entering the weekend have scored at least 10 runs in four of those five outings despite yielding eight runs per game in that span. Catawba has won all five of its home games this year and has won eight straight dating back to a 24-22 loss to Belmont Abbey on April 6, 2016.
Despite playing the fewest games in the league to date, coach Jim Gantt's group has scored the second-most runs posting just under 11 per game hitting a conference best .353 with 24 home runs hit. The top three players in the league in roundtrippers play for the Indians led by junior Luke Setzer's six as Zach Almond has five and Nick Coble has four.
On the rubber, Catawba is eighth in the league in team earned run average at 6.14 striking out 9.21 batters per nine innings. The hurlers have given up 21 long balls this season, the most by five of any team in the conference.
Setzer was named the NCBWA's Region Hitter of the Week on Feb. 22 hitting .714 with 10 hits and three home runs to lead the Catawba Indians to a series sweep over Shippensburg last week. In the middle game of the series, Setzer went 5-for-6 with two homers, three RBIs and four runs scored.
Each of the three games will be aired on the Eagle Sports Network beginning 15 minutes prior to the first pitch with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to First Pitch" on cneagles.com/live for the audio stream.
