JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman tries to build off of a win over Belmont Abbey on Wednesday with a three-game series against Brevard at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex starting at 2 p.m. on Friday before concluding with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon.
"We don't want to talk about a series being more important than any other," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We thought the first weekend series was pretty important at Catawba. We are really talking about taking care of what we can do. I think guys know records and where you stand and how you have to play. We knew that at Newberry, the importance of winning two games, or at least one, on the road. I don't think that is pressure. That's just common sense."
The two programs have met 28 times since the first contest in 2007 as Carson-Newman (11-16, 2-7) holds a robust 25-3 advantage winning the first 15 meetings including a 12-1 mark at home. Brevard's (8-20, 2-7) lone win in Jefferson City came on March 4, 2012, a 16-8 triumph at Mossy Creek.
In 2016, the Eagles picked up a sweep on the road at Gil Coan Field outscoring the Tornados 36-13 in the three-game set extending their winning streak at the time to 10 games. Griffin earned his 300th win at Carson-Newman in the final game of the series. The 36 runs were the most in a three-game series since scoring 43 in three wins over Lenoir-Rhyne on March 19-20, 2010. With 18 runs in game two, it was the most runs against a SAC team since dropping Lenoir-Rhyne 21-5 at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on March 20, 2010.
In nine series played between the two schools, Carson-Newman has six sweeps, three at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex, while taking two out of three games on three occasions. The only time that Brevard has won consecutive games against C-N came over a two-year period winning the series finale 16-8 on March 4, 2012 and the series opener of 2013 on Feb. 23, 2-1.
In the 2016 series, Greg Jones went 5-for-6 with three RBIs, Gooch Greer tallied a 4-4 sequence with a long ball and three runs scored while Jimmy Rice posted a 5-for-11 weekend with a homer and six driven in.
Brevard was voted last in the preseason SAC coaches' poll with 19 total points after a 5-19 league record a season ago. The Tornados were last in the conference with a total of 298 runs while posting a league-high 8.26 team ERA.
Coach Sean Walsh's team has lost five straight games, four of which have come on the road, entering this weekend since beating Bloomsburg 8-5 on March 11.
The Tornados are posting just 4.7 runs per game this season ranking 212th in the country while posting an 8.33 team earned run average, a mark that only 13 teams in the nation have a higher ERA.
In league games, Brevard has scored a total of 37 runs hitting .257 as a team with just one home run. The pitching staff is giving up roughly 13 runs per game for an ERA of 11.10 while walking 65 batters in 73 innings pitched.
Leading the group in the field this season is 2016 honorable mention All-SAC honoree Schuyler Martire who has posted a team-high .337 batting average while ranking 10th in the league with eight stolen bases.
Drake Black (14) and Kristofer Yarbrough (13) rank second and fifth respectively in the league and top 20 in the nation in pitching appearances this season.
The Eagle Sports Network will be on site providing wall-to-wall coverage with live stats on cneagles.com/livestats as well as video and audio streams on cneagles.com/live starting 15 minutes prior to the first pitch.
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