ROCK HILL, S.C. – Junior catcher Ethan Goforth was named preseason second-team All-South Atlantic Conference as the league unveiled its prognostications Tuesday morning.
"Catcher is the most important role on any ball club," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "You ain't going to win a championship without a solid catcher. I did a recent talk about offensive versus defensive catcher. At the Major League level, the combination didn't hit but .215 for the Red Sox.
"You have to have that guy that can lead that pitching staff because that's the key to the whole game is your pitching and defense. It all starts behind the dish. Ethan does a great job of knowing what to do and buying into what we have to do."
The last time the program saw a catcher be named to a preseason squad came prior to the 2017 campaign when seasoned veteran Gooch Greer was placed on the second team.
As a sophomore, the Blacksburg, Va. Native became the first catcher to be an all-conference pick and a Gold Glove winner in the same season for C-N being tabbed on the second club in 2018.
Goforth finished fourth in the SAC in stolen bases (17) and sixth in doubles (19) while racking up 21 multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games. The backstop led the SAC by throwing out 16 runners attempting to steal a bag, a 33 percent runner caught stealing percentage.
Dont't mind @charliebrown686 and @EthanG_3 for @CNBaseball
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 20, 2018
#️⃣4️⃣ on tonight's #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/QEnFe3mcOE
The junior played in every game catching nearly every inning for coach Tom Griffin's unit. He opened 2018 with a seven-game hitting streak going 10-for-23 (.435) with a bomb and six RBIs…
His first C-N roundtripper came in the 2018 season opener at Limestone in the third inning, a two-run shot while going 3-for-5 with a double, home run and three RBIs against Limestone on April 10.
Only Coker and Queens failed to put a single player on the all-conference crews as Newberry and Lincoln Memorial led the way with five players each.
The majority of games in 2019 will be broadcast by the Eagle Sports Network as you can watch every home game in high definition and enjoy audio broadcasts of every game during the season on cneagles.com/live with coverage starting 15 minutes prior to first pitch.
- CN -
