CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Ryan Beamish hit a two-out, three-run home run to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning breaking a 1-1 tie to propel Lee to a 4-1 win over Carson-Newman Monday at Olympic Field.
"It was our first real road trip in a while," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "You have to get off the bus go in the cage hitting. Does that factor into it? The pitchers they threw mixed it up well. Maybe they didn't have a plan. That's all part of the factor. Bottom line it was a good ball game and you had a chance in a couple innings with runners in scoring position. You knew it was one of those games. It was a 1-1 game. You knew it was going to come down to one or two hits."
The Eagles have dropped four-straight games in Cleveland having not won at Olympic Field since 2003. Carson-Newman (10-3) and Lee (6-5) are now tied in the all-time series at 10 while the Flames take a 5-4 lead on their home field.
Lee starter Thomas Zazzaro had retired the first seven batters of the game when Alan Silva (Sevierville, Tenn.) singled to left and went to third on a base hit to center field by Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.). Ethan Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) drove a sacrifice fly to center to open the scoring in the third.
Keyshaun Smith ripped a triple to straightaway center field to start the bottom of the third and scored two batters later on a ground out to second base to tie the score at one.
With two outs and no one on the in the bottom of the sixth, Miguel Pimentel hit a single deep in the hole at short and Justin Fragale laid down a bunt single up the third-base line. C-N went to the bullpen to call on Matt Bradley (Talbott, Tenn.). The righty got ahead 0-2 before leveling the count at 2-2. Ryan Beamish drove the breakeven out of the park to right field for his fourth homer of the year to give Lee its first lead at 4-1.
"It was a very bad decision on my part," Griffin said. "He wasn't ready. He wasn't loose. We were trying to get him ready down there and I don't know if he realized that we needed him to come in. Bad communication on my part."
The relief core for the Eagles had allowed just three of 22 inherited runners to score on the year prior to Beamish's long ball.
A one-out double from Goforth in the top of the eighth was the only base runner the Eagles had the rest of the contest going down in 1-2-3 fashion in the top of the ninth.
On the day, the Eagles were retired in order six times stranding the bases loaded in the top of the sixth. C-N mustered four hits on the day, tied for its second-lowest tally of the year.
Goforth went 2-for-3 at the dish driving in the team's lone run of the game as the rest of the lineup accounted for a pair of knocks.
Lee's bullpen fired five shutout frames allowing two hits and two walks while punching out three as David Pattinson won his second game of the year.
Fernando Ortiz was the only player on the opposite side of the lineup card with a pair of hits as each one of the top seven hitters for Lee collected a base hit.
The Eagles moved their Wednesday game to Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. against Virginia-Wise. First pitch from the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex will air on cneagles.com/live with the Eagle Sports Network providing coverage.
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