JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman baseball coach Tom Griffin announced Wednesday afternoon that Brandon Roberts would take on a larger role within his coaching staff entering the 2017 season.
The Davie, Fla. native will work with the outfielders and hitters and coach first base in his second season on staff. His first year as an assistant saw Roberts build recruiting relationships and provide scouting reports on opponents following a season with the Normal Cornbelters of the Frontier League.
The former third baseman was a four-year starter for the Eagles was named a second-team all-region selection by the American Baseball Coaches' Association (ABCA), the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and the Division II Collegiate Commissioners Association (D2CCA) on top of being a first-team All-South Atlantic Conference pick and Gold Glove winner in 2016.
Roberts is the third C-N third baseman to earn a first-team All-SAC nod and the first since Derrick Lankford in 1996. He ranked in the top-10 in the conference in hits (71 – 5th), batting average (.368 - 9th), RBIs (54 – 6th), slugging percentage (.622 – 9th) and total bases (120 – 8th). On March 1, 2016 the senior was named the SAC and Tennessee Sportswriters' Association Player of the Week as he became the first C-N player to earn the SAC honor since Kevin Franchetti won on March 5, 2013. He began his final campaign on a 17-game hitting streak and has notched 20 multi-hit games and 14 multi-RBI outings.
Occupying the hot corner, he tallied a .944 fielding percentage tallying 117 assists, second among players at the hot corner and ninth in the league while being a part of nine double plays.
Roberts joined Brandon Burchfield in 2016 as the only two players to be named CoSIDA Academic All-Diistrict as Burchfield was an All-American in 2006 and 2007. The Davie, Fla. native excelled in the classroom piling up a 3.54 GPA while studying in the Carson-Newman Communications School with a major of Media Studies.
The position had previously been by Skyler Barnett who accepted an assistant coaching position at his alma mater, East Tennessee State, on Aug. 15, 2017. Barnett spent three seasons with the Orange and Blue.
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