JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Putting a bow on its fall work, the Carson-Newman baseball team will host its annual Orange versus Blue World Series over the weekend in a best of five intrasquad series with teams led by pitching coach Mark Allen Bounds and assistant Brandon Roberts, one of the two MVPs in 2016.
The events begin Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. near Mossy Creek. Saturday will be a doubleheader with two seven-inning games beginning at noon with game four on Sunday at 1 p.m. Games one through four are tentatively scheduled to be played at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex with game five slated to be at Jefferson County High School Tuesday evening.
The two coaches held a draft Tuesday morning inside of the baseball offices based on position groups. Bounds had the first selection for the Orange club in the draft featuring the catching position as he tabbed redshirt-freshman Ethan Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.).
Roberts started the Blue team's process with the next two picks of the infield and outfield taking senior third baseman Brett Langhorne (Mechiancsville, Va.) and senior Cade Snapp (Seymour, Tenn.).
Bounds finished off the first round of the draft by taking senior hurler Will Gardner (Morristown, Tenn.), the workhorse of the pitching staff in 2017 that was named to the 2017 South Atlantic Conference All-Tournament team.
American League rules with a designated hitter will be employed for games one, three and five as the Blue team will be the home club while National League rules will be used for games two and four.
The game one pitching matchup will pit junior Tanner Fee (Knoxville, Tenn.) for the Blue team against sophomore Jordan Davis (Maryville, Tenn.). Roberts gives the ball to East Tennessee State transfer Dillon Cate (Sevierville, Tenn.) in game two against Bounds's choice of Gardner.
The winner of the series earns a championship shirt while the losing team has to do field work and paint the facilities.
The team that scores the most total runs over the course of the five contests gets a meal at Gondolier, a spot for traditional Italian fare, plus Greek specialties & oven-baked sandwiches.
In 2016, Austin Conner (Sevierville, Tenn.) hit Jimmy Rice on the left bicep with the bases loaded to score Ryan Addington and propel Brandon Roberts's Blue Bantus to a 9-8 victory and a 3-1 series win. Addington went on to be tabbed the Most Valuable Player of the series.
The Eagle Sports Network will provide the audio call of each game on cneagles.com/live as fans are encouraged to listen to the broadcast team over the weekend. Recaps of each game will be posted on cneagles.com following play each day.
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