JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Aiming to get back into the win column, Carson-Newman concludes a 13-game homestand hosting Quincy in a four-game series at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex starting on Friday at 2 p.m. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday at noon and the final game will be Sunday at 1 p.m.
With losses in four straight games, the Eagles are looking to avoid a five-game skid for the first time since March 23-27, 2020 losing one to sixth-ranked Lee and four to Wingate. To find the last time the team lost six in a row, you have to go back to March 7-15, 2015 when the unit lost three to Lincoln Memorial, one to Lee and two to Mars Hill.
Carson-Newman's (10-7) pitching is the stingiest team in the South Atlantic Conference in yielding walks allowing 3.44 per nine innings. In 10 of the 17 games, the club has surrendered three or fewer. With nine punch outs per nine innings, the team has fanned at least 10 eight times. Last season, the Orange and Blue hit that mark nine times in 43 outings.
While the Eagles have never played Quincy (3-4), they have played four clubs out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference holding a 14-6 overall record against Southern Indiana, Bellarmine, St. Joseph's and McKendree. The last time the club played a team from the league it swept McKendree in a four-game set in February 2016 outscoring the Bearcats 35-12 giving up four or fewer runs in each affair.
After not hosting a four-game series since 2002 prior to that series, the Eagles came out of the gates swinging scoring in the first inning in three of the four and outscoring the Bearcats 15-1 over the first three innings. Paul Kirby cranked three homers in the series as six different Eagles launched roundtrippers.
Last season, Quincy posted a 29-15 overall record going 24-10 in conference play qualifying for the NCAA Tournament as the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Regional. After falling 8-3 to eventual regional champion Trevecca Nazarene, the Hawks rebounded to beat top-seeded Illinois-Springfield 4-3 before being eliminated in a bonkers 22-13 affair by Davenport.
Quincy is looking to replace one of the best pitchers in the country as Riley Martin was named the 2021 NCBWA Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year and an All-American. The left-hander finished the year leading the country with 152 strikeouts and an eye-popping 17.39 punch outs per nine innings. He fanned at least 10 in 11 of his 12 starts with 16 or more five times led by 19 over seven innings against Illinois-Springfield on May 7.
To date the pitching staff has held its own striking out 71 in 56 2/3 innings but has given up eight home runs. Three pitchers have tossed double-digit innings to date with Griffin Kirn pacing the crew with 16 strikeouts in 10 innings but allowed five runs against Columbus State on Feb. 26 after fanning 11 in his first outing.
The club did return first-team All-American Dayson Croes becoming the first All-American for the program since Ryan Snyder in 2016. He hit .436 with nine homers and 17 doubles adding 54 RBIs while striking out in six percent of his at bats, the 14th-toughest player to punch out in Division II. This year he has hit safely in six of seven and is coming off of his best game going 3-for-4 in the series finale with the Cougars.
Overall the lineup is extremely balanced with seven players collecting either eight or nine hits and nine batters tallying three RBIs. Brock Boynton is the only player to attempt a stolen base going 1-for-3 on the young year as he has nine hits, all singles, to lead the team with a .375 batting average.
All four games this weekend will air on the Eagle Sports Network with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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