JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Closing in on the final month of the regular season, Carson-Newman opens a five-game homestand on Wednesday at 3 p.m. hosting King at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
With an 11-3 record at home, the Eagles' pitching staff has been nearly identical in home versus road splits recording one fewer out away from home. The only significant difference is recording 48 more strikeouts at Mossy Creek. The difference comes at the plate where the team has scored 50 more runs, an average of 8.3 runs per game versus 4.1. The team is hitting 30 points higher at home and reaching base at a 64-point higher rate.
Carson-Newman (15-15) faces off with King (10-18) for the 33rd time with the former holding a 22-10 lead behind back-to-back wins and four of the last five. The Orange and Blue won 11-0 at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex in February 2022 and took a 5-3 win at King on March 10, 2022.
In the first matchup, four hurlers fanned a dozen batters and seven Eagles drove in runs as Griffin's group recorded its second shutout of the year. Matt Coles fired his second quality start of the year to improve to 2-0 on the season scattering four hits and a walk over six innings with five strikeouts. Jordan Griffin paced the club with the first four-hit day of his career going 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Carson-Newman recorded a shutout over King for the second time in the history of the series with the last coming in 1990, also an 11-0 win. The Eagles scored at least one run in six of the eight trips to the dish.
In the second affair, Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) and Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) launched homers and the bullpen allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings. Carson-Newman improved to 10-3 in road affairs against King while the Eagles win a seventh straight road game, their longest winning streak since March 11 to April 14, 2011.
Playing in a league highlighted by the eventual National Champions, North Greenville, King went 24-22 last year going 16-13 in Conference Carolinas play posting a winning record for the first time since 2018. Two-time first-team all-league pick Drew Moore finished 19th in the nation with five complete games.
Projected to finish seventh in the preseason poll, the Tornado find themselves at the bottom of the league table with two wins in 17 tries having played two nationally-ranked foes over the past two weeks.
Coach Blaine Brown's crew started the year with six straight wins but is 4-18 since Feb. 18 with four losses in a row since beating Emory & Henry 21-18 on March 21 and nine of the last 10 overall. During the losing streak, the unit is being outscored 38-14.
The club has allowed 20-plus runs twice and at least 10 runs seven times going 2-12 this season when allowing six or more runs. Foes are hitting .307 against the pitching staff as the group has tallied a 1.84 WHIP ranking ninth in the league.
King is averaging 4.8 runs per game for the year ranking 211th out of 248 units in the country. The Tornado have been shut out five times and posted three or fewer runs on 15 occasions. Subtract the 21-run outburst against the Wasps and the unit has scored 36 runs in the last nine games being shut out thrice. The team has hit nine homers for the year with four coming against in the 21-18 win on March 21.
Sophomore Preston Steele has carried a lot of the weight at the plate posting a .346 average with four homers and 21 RBIs. He has scored or driven in 41 of the team's 135 runs scored for the year. He enters the game riding a five-game hitting streak going 9-for-20 with two homers and seven RBIs. He has 12 multi-hit games and five multi-RBI days.
King ranks 219th in the country in fielding percentage at .944 with only four games without an error committing at least one in 10 in a row since March 11 against Southern Wesleyan. The Torando have 16 multi-error games out of 28.
Wednesday's game will air on the Eagle Sports Network with video available on FloSports with a paid subscription and an audio-only stream on cneagles.com/live.
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