JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For a second straight season, Carson-Newman put two players on the first-team All-South Atlantic Conference team as Brayden Coe and Tyler Thompson earned the honors announced by the league on Wednesday.
With no teams being announced in 2020 due to Covid, the program has multiple players on the top team in two straight seasons for the first time since 2005 and 2006 when there were two individuals on each. Coe becomes the 28th pitcher in the history of the program to net all-conference honors and the 10th to get a spot on the top club.
"I think it's big for me personally because of what happened last year," Coe said. "I didn't have the best year that I wanted to. Coming back, I wanted to work and get that ERA down and put some quality innings on the mound for our team. We just needed some quality innings out of the starting role and I feel like I was able to do that this year."
Thompson earns the second first-team honor of his career also doing so in 2019. The Gallatin, Tenn. native is the first Eagle to earn multiple first-team laurels since Nathan Gravely did so in three consecutive campaigns from 2003-05. Overall he is the sixth Eagle to earn multiple first-team nods joining Mike Brady (1991-92), Derrick Lankford (1996-97), Shap Stiles (1998-99) and Heath Mason (2000 and 2002).
Carson-Newman has produced at least two all-conference honorees six years in a row and a total of 20, its longest run since a string of seven from 2002-08 that produced 32. All told, the program now has 107 All-SAC athletes and 52 on first club.
Coe has piled up a wonderful season going 6-0 with a 2.63 ERA in nine starts striking out 53 batters and walking just 16 in 54 2/3 innings pitched. The Eagles are 7-2 as a team in his outings this year. His six victories are good for third in the league and 15th in the country while his three complete games are fifth and 21st respectively. His ERA is fifth in the conference while he ranks ninth hits per nine innings (6.91), strikeout to walk ratio (3.31) and walks per nine (2.63). His 53 strikeouts are fourth.
"My mindset was to attack hitters and make them put the ball in play," Coe said. "I feel like we had a really good defense behind me. Micah Genter at shortstop and you have Charlie Brown in center field flying all over the place making every play that he can make. It gives me confidence to fill up the zone early and often and let them put balls in play and let them work."
With six wins on the bump, he is one win shy of moving into an 11-way tie for ninth on the program's single-season wins list most recently accomplished by Vince Apicella in 2015. His ERA is fractions of points away of being one of the top 10 for a year.
The Bridgeville, Pa. native has hurled four quality starts on the year with his gem coming on March 20 against Queens when he fanned 10 over nine innings giving up a run with two outs in the ninth inning. It is one of three times he has thrown at least eight frames along with March 5 against UVA Wise and April 17 at Coker. Each time he has only allowed one run.
Despite letting a lead-off batter reach at a .404 clip on the year, opponents are hitting .146 with runners on base, .200 with two outs and .182 as a right-handed batter. He has not yielded more than seven hits in any game on the year with six of nine netting four or fewer.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) April 11, 2021
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Goodbye baseball!@TylerThompson47 with the emphatic answer and it's all square in Mossy Creek.
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) April 11, 2021
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Thompson adds the 13th honor to his honor roll in a career that has seen hit post a .371 batting average, 22 home runs, 111 RBIs, 134 runs scored, 37 stolen bases, 39 doubles and six triples. In 2021, he has a .360 average with seven long balls and 32 RBIs. He has 54 hits, good for third in the league and sixth in the country, the second year in a row he is top 10 nationally in knocks.
The everyday lead-off hitter leads the team with 18 multi-hit games brining his career tally to 66 and multi-RBI days with nine raising his four-year margin to 27. Thompson matched a career-high with a 12-game hitting streak from March 5-27 with eight multi-hit affairs going 21-for-48 (.438) with three long balls and eight RBIs touching home a dozen times.
Carson-Newman is slated to start play in the 2021 SAC Baseball Championships on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against eighth-seeded Mars Hill from Smokies Stadium with video coverage on cneagles.com/live brought to you by the Eagle Sports Network team.
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