JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Jake Wright hurled a complete-game one-hit shutout and Brayden Coe allowed one run in the ninth inning to secure 5-0 and 7-1 victories for No. 25 Carson-Newman to open the South Atlantic Conference series against Queens Saturday at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"What you saw was basically guys who got ahead," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "As we all know in baseball strike one is extremely important. They did that. I thought they were in the zone and expanded the zone when needed. It was a great pitching job. It comes down to the two catchers who did a great job getting the pitchers where they needed to. I am very happy for both guys and our catchers."
Carson-Newman (13-4, 8-2) has won six straight games and is now 9-1 at home. The pitching combination each threw a complete game in their respective starts facing the minimum nine times in 16 innings on the rubber. Queens (6-17, 4-14) put a runner in scoring position in only four innings.
The Eagles combined to fan 16 batters scattering eight hits on the day. Conversely, the lumber tallied 13 hits putting up three or more runs in three of the 14 times to the plate.
Game One: CARSON-NEWMAN 5, Queens 0 (7 Innings)
Jake Wright (Ringgold, Ga.) became the first Eagle to throw a complete game shutout since Vince Apicella blanked Newberry on April 6, 2019, a span of 210 games and 1,817 days ago. The rookie right-hander worked seven innings giving up one hit fanning six batters. He retired 17 in a row prior to a dropped fly ball with two outs in the top of the seventh. He promptly induced a grounder back to the mound to end the game. Wright faced the minimum through six needing to see four batters in the seventh.
In the bottom of the second, a hit batter and base hit put the first two men aboard as the Eagles manufactured a run. A fly out to right field and a sacrifice fly on a shallow pop to left field scored the game's first run.
Once again the in the bottom of the third, C-N pushed a run across the dish with Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) grounding out to second base to make it a 2-0 affair.
Carson-Newman sent eight men to the plate in the fifth inning scoring three times to push the margin out to 5-0. After Charlie Brown (Sevierville, Tenn.) doubled with one out, Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) poked a 0-2 offering to right field. After a single, Harrison Travis pulled a 2-2 pitch with two outs over the shortstop to score a pair.
Henry Jackson (Waxhaw, N.C.) produced his third-career three-hit game going 3-for-3 with a run scored while Brown tallied a pair of knocks.
Carter Foster was the only player to reach base for the Royals doubling with two outs in the first before being caught stealing and reaching on the dropped fly ball in the seventh.
Game Two: CARSON-NEWMAN 7, Queens 1
Three hit batters, a walk and an error helped Carson-Newman take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. After a passed ball brought in Thompson from third base, Boze hit a sacrifice fly to right field. Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonsville, S.C.) shoveled a single into center field to cap the opening inning scoring.
For the second straight stanza, the Eagles batted around getting five straight hits with one out. Jackson tripled to the wall in right-center field to open the scoring. Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) roped a knock through the left side of the infield to get home another run. An RBI double from Boze and a run-producing ground out from Andrew Carpenter made it 7-0 after two innings.
The Eagles bat went silent producing zero hits in the final six innings and two base runners being retired in order five times in the final six stanzas.
Coe was one out away from securing the first back-to-back shutout wins for the Eagles in 13 years only to see Anthony Molinari dumped a bloop single to center field to get the Royals on the board in the ninth to end the contest.
The Bridgeville, Pa. native reset his career high with 10 strikeouts working a career-long nine innings for his first-career complete game, the first by a C-N pitcher in a nine-inning game since 2018. He scattered seven hits and a walk on the day to improve to 3-0.
"I was trying to attack from the start," Coe said. "[Wright] gave me a scouting report. I feel like I went out there and executed that scouting report. I was talking to him this week and he was so excited. I talked to him after the game and he was so excited. For a freshman to go out there like and dominate gives me a lot of confidence for the second game that I am going to do that in the second game."
Carson-Newman produced seven hits by seven different players with Boze driving in a pair and Jackson and Travis scoring a pair of runs each.
Anthony Orta tallied a pair of knocks as Queens produced seven in the game. The first three pitchers of the day allowed all seven runs while the final six pitchers did not give up a hit.
The two clubs will wrap up the four-game series starting at 1 p.m. with game one of the doubleheader from the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. Broadcast coverage airs on cneagles.com/live with audio and video formats available.
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