JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's relievers allowed two base runners in four innings as the Eagles scored one in the seventh and three in the eighth to take down Covenant 8-5 at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex Tuesday afternoon.
"The way that the bullpen has been working," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin credited. "The way that coach [Mark Allen] Bounds and [Matt] Lambert had been working with these guys – it's good to see. Mark has done a great job managing the bullpen which has helped us."
With one out in the top of the first, Caleb Bloye hit a high fly ball to right field. Cal Smith (Kellar, Texas) never located the ball as it dropped on the warning track for a double. Following a strikeout, C.J. Edmond cranked a 2-2 delivery, the seventh of the at-bat, over the right-field fence to put Covenant ahead 2-0.
After a fly out, Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.) hit a single back up the middle. A wild pitch and a ground out moved him to third before Ethan Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) ripped a double off of the fence in left-center field to get the Eagles on the board.
Christian Murray tripled with two outs in the top of the third to push the lead to 3-1 before the Eagles scored three times in the bottom of the second to take a 4-3 lead.
There were two men on with one out when Charlie Brown (Sevierville, Tenn.) smacked a base hit over a leaping shortstop and into left field to plate a pair and tie the score. An error and a wild pitch put men at second and third as Brown crossed the dish on a sacrifice fly to right by Genter.
A one-out error by Genter put Joel Johnson on base in the top of the third inning. After a punch out, Tyler Moore ripped a triple into a hole in the left-center field alley to tie the score.
Johnson put the Scots back on top in the fifth belting a 1-2 offering over the left-field wall for his first long ball of the season to make it a 5-4 contest.
Cade Snapp (Seymour, Tenn.) hit a floater in shallow center field and with the outfield playing back, the ball dropped allowing Snapp to hustle to second base with a lead-off double. He moved to third on a ground out in front of the plate and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Jose Quintana (Miami, Fla.) to tie the score at five.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, C-N batted around as Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonville, S.C.) put the Eagles on top with a towering chopper over the third baseman to score Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.). RBI singles from Brett Langhorne (Mechiancsville, Va.) and Snapp pushed the margin to three runs at 8-5.
Greg Valentine (Knoxville, Tenn.) induced a pair of double plays in his 1 2/3 innings of work while allowing a hit to earn the win and improve to 5-0 on the season.
Will Gardner (Morristown, Tenn.) threw 10 pitches in the top of the ninth while striking out the side to earn his seventh save of the year.
Snapp went 3-for-5 on the day while Langhorne, Goforth, John Sharpe (Franklin, Tenn.) and Thompson all tallied two-hit efforts.
"I knew coming in that I wasn't going to see many fastballs," Snapp stated. "I swung at some bad pitches [early in the game]. Throughout the game I tried to change my approach and know what they are going to throw me. I tried to hit middle/back. If you try to pull the ball it doesn't work with slow pitching."
Covenant mustered six total hits and had nine men on the base paths during the game as no player notched more than one knock.
Bluefield State makes an appearance at Mossy Creek Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. The Eagle Sports Network hits the airwaves at 1:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to First Pitch" on cneagles.com/live with audio and video streams available.
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