JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman committed an early error and walked nine batters conceding the first dozen runs of the day to suffer its first loss of the season Tuesday at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex 12-6 against King.
The Eagles were one of five remaining undefeated teams in the Southeast Region seeing their 16-game regular-season winning streak snapped. It was the first loss since April 6, 2019 against ninth-ranked Newberry.
"I like the way our guys just kept playing the game," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "If you came to the game and turned the scoreboard off, you would have said, it must be a pretty good game. Truly I think these guys did a good job of treating it like it was one pitch at a time. Let's win this inning. That's all we can control is attitude and effort. They did that. We ask them to compete on every pitch. If they do that we can sleep well tonight."
King (4-3) stops a two-game losing streak to Carson-Newman (7-1) as the Eagles had won seven of the last nine meetings between the two teams.
Griffin's crew had ample opportunities going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position stranding 11 men on base mustering a total of three hits in 17 tries with runners on base.
After getting a fly out to left field to start the game, Logan Cogburn (Friendsville, Tenn.) walked three of the next four batters to load the bases with two outs for Conner Andrews. The right-handed hitter hit a high chopper in front of the plate. Brendan Krob (Justice, Ill.) barehanded the ball and airmailed first base to bring in a pair and put the Eagles in a 2-0 hole.
The Tornado put up three runs in the second batting around getting a homer from Bennett McCann, a sacrifice fly from Austin Meyer and an RBI single to right field from Braden Cooney.
Following a sacrifice fly to center from Harry Barger, Meyer clubbed a two-run home run to right field to push the margin to 8-0 after three innings.
A two-run blast from Conner Andrews in the fourth and a two-run single from Cooney in the fifth put the Eagles in a 12-0 hole through five frames.
Carson-Newman started a comeback bid in the sixth inning scoring four times getting a two-run double from Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.) to make it a 12-4 contest. The Eagles loaded the bases with two outs but a swinging strikeout ended the threat.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 11, 2020
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A home run to left field from Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) in the seventh added a run. Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.) hustled to score from second base on a fly out to right field by Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) to trim the score to 12-6.
Cogburn suffered the loss giving up a career-high five runs, three earned while recording five outs behind four walks and five hits. He was one of eight pitchers used by the Orange and Blue. The final four combined for four hitless innings with a punch out.
Ricketts, Mike Wroth (Chicopee, Mass.) and Griffin each had two hits as the Eagles piled up 10 on the day drawing five walks as a team.
Five players had multi-hit days for the Tornado. Meyer went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs scored and McCann went 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
Jake DeLisi earned his first-career win firing four scoreless innings with three strikeouts giving up two hits and a walk.
The Eagles host Tusculum Wednesday at 1 p.m. continuing their extended homestand. Broadcast coverage on the Eagle Sports Network can be found with video and audio streams on cneagles.com/live.
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