VIDEO: John Sharpe Interviews Cal Smith
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Alderson Broaddus walked 19 batters and notched four errors as Carson-Newman needed eight hits to notch a four-game series sweep over the Battlers on a rain Sunday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"Today was an opportunity [to use the bench]," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "To be able to see them in live action and against someone else to see what they can do. I think anytime you are winning and having success it takes one good day to change the course of events.
"We talked yesterday about the fact maybe we weren't as competitive when it was a 9-0 game with our at-bats. Today I was so impressed how our guys were playing this game from the first inning to the last out. We were playing this game like it was 0-0. The scoreboard didn't matter."
Since the start of the 2016 season, this marks the fourth time that a team has walked 19 times, the most in a single game during that stretch. There were two occasions last season and one in 2016 when Lincoln Memorial drew 19 against Shorter. Only Saint Xavier issued 19 free passes in less than nine innings doing so in eight on April 11, 2018.
Carson-Newman (7-1) is off to its best start of the season since 2014 while recording a four-game sweep for the first time since toppling McKendree from Feb. 26-28, 2016. The Eagles are now 6-0 all-time against Alderson Broaddus (0-4) outscoring the Battlers 65-12 in the series.
Griffin's group stole seven bases in the game, the most in a single game since taking seven against Anderson on St. Patrick's Day of last season. The Eagles had 16 stolen bases in the series.
C-N scored at least one run in each of the seven innings in the contest plating at least three in four of the seven. It is the first time that the squad scored in every inning since doing so in a seven-inning home 12-9 win over Brevard on April 4, 2009.
The Eagles put runners at second and third base with no one out in the bottom of the first inning. Ryan Varley struck out the next two batters before walking Mike Wroth (Chicopee, Mass.) to load the bases. Brendan Campbell (Yardley, Pa.) drove a 2-2 offering to the warning track in right field to clear the bases sprinting to third for a triple. He scored on an error by the third baseman to make it a 4-0 contest.
Sacrifice flies from Malik Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) and Ethan Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) in the second and third innings stretched the bulge to 6-0.
With runners at the corners and two outs, Charlie Brown (Sevierville, Tenn.) was caught in a rundown between first and second allowing Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) to steal home pushing the lead out to 7-0.
The first three men reached for the Battlers in the top of the fifth before Lane Casto hit a ball to the warning track in center field to clear the bases. He scored on a throwing error to cut the deficit to 7-4.
C-N scored five times in the bottom of the fifth putting just one ball in play during the frame drawing six walks and being hit by a pitch making it a 12-4 contest.
In the bottom of the sixth, three walks loaded the bases with two outs. Wroth ambushed the next pitched whacking it over the left-field wall for a grand slam pushing the cushion to 16-4.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 10, 2019
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Back-to-back doubles opened the top of the seventh as Casto brought home Colton Henson on a rocket down the left-field line to make it an 11-run contest.
Two more bases loaded walks and a sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the seventh inning provided the winning margin. The umpires decided the playing surface was unplayable with resting puddles rising up around the infield.
"Every day you are here you are just looking to play the game that they love," outfielder Cal Smith said. "At the end of the day it's still a game. When you get the opportunity to play, you are going to play hard. It's cold and rainy, you just do what you can."
On the day, 14 different Eagles scored a run and 10 drove in a run despite collecting a total of eight knocks on the day. Wroth went 1-for-2 with five RBIs and a pair of runs scored as one five players with multiple runs scored.
Casto had three of the Battlers's eight hits in the game going 3-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored. He went 8-for-15 at the plate overall in the series while his teammates went 13-for-92 for a .141 batting average.
The Eagles have two midweek contests on tap starting with a road trip to Shorter Tuesday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. from Rome, Ga.
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