JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman, one of the top power hitting lineups in the nation, returns to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for its first South Atlantic Conference series of the year hosting UVA Wise for a four-game set on Friday and Saturday. Each day features a doubleheader starting at noon.
The Eagles have blasted 11 home runs this year ranking in the top 20 nationally with five over a four-game long ball streak. Carson-Newman (7-4, 2-2) has homered in seven of 11 games with three mutli-homer efforts. Overall, 32 of the team's 107 total hits have gone for extra bases.
Coach Tom Griffin's group has scored at least 10 runs on four occasions with six outings of 10-plus hits. A big part of the success is that the team is the third-toughest to strikeout in conference play fanning less than seven times per game. The Orange and Blue are fourth in the league in on-base percentage with a .388 tally.
Carson-Newman has been a great two-out hitting team producing a .325 clip compared to its opponents hitting .236. Five players are hitting better than .455 (minimum seven at-bats) with two outs and five have four or more pokes. The club has produced 36 percent, 38 total knocks, of its hits with two down.
This weekend is the first time the teams will meet as conference foes with the Eagles holding an 8-1 advantage in the series thanks to a six-game winning streak. C-N is 7-0 at home against UVA Wise (1-5, 0-4) with its only loss coming in Virginia on March 22, 2016, a 10-4 setback being outhit 16-6.
Across the nine meetings, the team from Mossy Creek has outscored the Cavaliers 78-34 with three double-digit scoring efforts holding Wise to three or fewer runs six times. In the most recent meeting, a 9-4 C-N win on Feb. 19, 2019, Logan Cogburn fired five scoreless innings and three Eagles tallied a multi-hit day.
Wise started the year 0-5 on the road after going 10-7 away from the friendly confines in 2020 before beating King 10-3 on Wednesday. Last week in a four-game series at Tusculum, the club was outscored 47-9 being run-ruled in each of the final three games. The Pioneers held the Cavs off of the scoreboard over the final 13 2/3 innings. The last run the club scored in the SAC came with one out in the seventh of game two when Tyler Blaum scored on a wild pitch.
At the dish, the team's bats have not come alive yet with no more than eight pokes in any contest being held to six or fewer in all but the King game. However the club has showed patience drawing four-plus walks in five of six including 10 on Wednesday.
JoJo Kelliher and Gabe Wurtz have combined to drive in or score 14 of the team's 21 runs this year. Kelliher has been on base in every game this year with seven hits and six walks leading the club with a .591 on-base percentage. He has the team's only stolen base in the lone steal attempt of the year in the top of the third of the opener.
On the mound, the pitching staff has combined to allow 27 walks and 70 hits in 40 1/3 innings equaling a 2.41 team WHIP. It has allowed at least one homer in five straight games (six total). Wise has allowed 10 or more runs in four of the six contests and struck out 27 total hitters.
Sixteen pitchers have toed the rubber this year, 14 of which have given up a run and a dozen have allowed two-plus runs. Opponents are hitting .374 this year and the longest start this year was Christian Smith's 3 1/3 innings against Tusculum in the first-game of the series.
The Cavaliers are being outscored 12-1 in the first inning this year plating seven total runs in the first four frames compared to 39 by opposing clubs.
All four affairs this weekend can be heard and seen on cneagles.com/live with the Eagle Sports Network producing the broadcast in audio and video formats.
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