CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Drawing 11 walks, Carson-Newman used a five-run sixth inning to break a five-all tie capitalizing on scoring opportunities to race past Lee 12-5 and remain undefeated on the road in 2022 Tuesday at Olympic Field.
"Early in the game, we were great with situational hitting," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "It was get them on, get them over and get them in. I loved the way we executed. Matt Coles gave us a chance with four innings of relief. Carpenter and Ricketts had really good offensive days. Some of the new guys did a great a really good job today. Spencer Bright was on three times caught a good game and Spencer Williams drove in two runs in his first start."
Carson-Newman (15-10) pushes its road winning streak to 10 in a row, tied for the second-longest mark in the nation behind only Angelo State's 18-game tally. It is the fourth time this year that the club has scored double digits away from home.
On the fifth pitch of the game, Andrew Carpenter (Morristown, Tenn.) was hit by a pitch moving around the bases on a wild pitch and two ground outs to put the Eagles ahead 1-0.
After Lee tied the score in the bottom of the first on a balk, C-N tallied two more runs in the second to go back on top 3-1 on an RBI single from Carpenter and a run-producing ground out by Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.).
Ryan Potts (Dandridge, Tenn.) scored on a wild pitch in the top of the fourth to push the margin to three runs. Lee responded by getting two across in the bottom of the frame on a ground out and a triple by Nate Bynum that he shoveled inside of the first-base line to inch the Flames within a run at 4-3.
Ricketts drew a walk to lead off the fifth inning and worked around the bases on a wild pitch and two fly outs capped by one from Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) to make it a 5-3 affair.
Lee loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth. Following a double play ball to make it a one-run game, a roller was hit out to short but a high throw yanked Travis off of the first base bag to bring in the tying run and level the score at five.
Of the 11 batters that stepped to the dish in the top of the sixth, seven Eagles drew a walk as each of the first four drew a free pass to put the unit back on top. After a pop out, Ricketts roped a ball down the right field line to bring in two. With the bases loaded again, two straight two-out bases on balls punctuated the five-run inning to swell the bulge to 10-5.
Luke Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) ripped a 0-1 pitch down the right-field line to open up the top of the seventh advancing to third on a fly out to right. He snuck underneath a tag on a sacrifice fly to shallow right to stretch the advantage to 11-5.
The Eagles added a run in the top of the eight on a ground out to first base. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Flames recorded back-to-back extra-base hits as Cam Suto launched a two-run bomb to left-center to get the contest to the final of 12-7.
Two C-N hitters tallied a multi-hit day with Carpenter going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Travis knocking around two pokes. Ricketts drove in three runs and scored twice.
On the slab, Matt Coles (Winter Garden, Fla.) earned the win throwing four innings of relief fanning four batters giving up two runs, one earned, on four hits and two walks.
The majority of the offense for the Flames came from the bottom of the order with Suto and Jake Edwards combining for four of the team's nine hits.
Lee used eight different pitchers with seven giving up at least one run and four walking at least two batters. Only 101 of the team's 196 pitches in the game went for strikes.
Carson-Newman returns to Mossy Creek this weekend for more South Atlantic Conference action when Coker comes to town starting on Friday at 2 p.m. All three games will air on the Eagle Sports Network with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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