JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With five games left on the regular-season schedule, Carson-Newman takes to the road to travel to Nashville for a midweek affair against Trevecca Nazerene on Tuesday afternoon at 6 p.m. looking to build on a series win over Lenoir-Rhyne.
"We have some things that we are going to talk about on Monday that we need to do better coming into the game," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "It doesn't matter if you have won 10 in-a-row or lost 10 in-a-row, you come here and get ready to go work. You get ready to have fun playing this game but there are some parameters and boundaries that have to be followed."
Tuesday will give Carson-Newman (22-20) a chance to do something that it has not accomplished since the 2008 season - record back-to-back shutouts. Behind six strong innings from Matt Bradley in the series finale against Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday, the Eagles beat the Bears 5-0. C-N last recorded two straight scoreless games on April 4-6 at Wingate winning 6-0 and 1-0 against the Bulldogs.
With four road games this week to close out the regular-season road slate, Griffin's group will look to finish better than .500 as a visitor for the first time since 2016 (11-8) and the second time in the last six seasons. C-N is currently 8-10 in road games with setbacks in seven of the last nine.
The Eagles began playing Trevecca Nazerene (15-20) in 2014 as the two squads have met up four times with each team winning twice, once at home and once on the road.
In the most recent affair between the two clubs on April 19, 2016 in Jefferson City, the Trojans scored four times in the top of the ninth to overcome a three-run deficit to win 7-6. Jimmy Rice and Gooch Greer each tallied a pair of hits with an RBI and a run scored to lead the Carson-Newman offense that had nine hits on the afternoon. Zach Tompkins, Griffin Ganick and Ryan Arington each had two hits for the Trojans as the bullpen allowed just one earned run in four innings.
When the two teams last met up in the Music City, Vince Apicella (Dillsburg, Pa.) matched a single season school record with his sixth complete game of the season in a 4-0 Carson-Newman win. The lefty struck out at least 10 for the seventh time this season punching out 10 during a six-hit shutout while yielding just two walks. It was a record that he broke the next season with seven. Apicella struck out every man in the Trevecca Nazerene lineup with the exception of the 22nd round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals Hunter Newman who entered the game ranked third in the nation with a .495 batting average.
There are three common opponents on the two schedules. Norhwood, who C-N beat two out of three, pounded TNU 22-5 on Feb. 24. Lincoln Memorial lost to the Trojans 11-10 on April 3, a little more than a week after taking two out of three against the Eagles. Both clubs lost to Lee as C-N fell 10-9 at home on Feb. 20 and Trevecca fell 4-3 on April 10.
The Trevecca lineup does have some pop as the unit is third in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference with 26 bombs on the year. Sam Mang has 10 of those and Ethan Harrison has clubbed eight. Harrison also leads the team in stolen bases with 14 on the season having been caught three times.
On the mound is where the group struggles holding a team ERA of 6.54, fourth from the bottom in the GMAC giving up nearly six walks per nine innings and over 10 hits per game.
Tanner Swift will step to the microphone on Tuesday evening to provide the sounds on the Eagle Sports Network starting at 3:50 on cneagles.com/live.
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