CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Lee (8-4) scored seven unanswered runs in the middle innings to defeat Carson-Newman (5-5) 9-4 on Tuesday afternoon at Larry Carpenter Field.
"The first couple innings we had good approaches and we had timely hits," Carson-Newman head baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "The fifth inning on was really poor. We had some really poor at bats. Give their lefty credit, he had a really good changeup, but we did nothing to make an adjustment and that's my fault because we didn't talk about it. Too many freebees as well and that's what creates big innings. The middle innings there we did a poor job offensively with adjustments."
Lee has won three straight meetings and five of the last six. The Eagles have been held to five runs or less in all three losses during this stretch.
C-N wasted no time getting the offense going. Dalton McLain wacked an 0-2 pitch into the gap for a leadoff single. After he stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch, James Denten (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) singled to center on a 3-2 offering and C-N scored the game's first run. Two batters later, Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) roped a double into the right center field gap to score Denten from first and the Eagles led by two runs early.
After a 1-2-3 inning from Hughes, the offense went back to work in the 2nd inning. Aiden Gibson singled to start the frame. He was bunted over to second base, and then eventually made it to third after a passed ball. Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) stepped up and lifted a high fly ball to right field for a sacrifice fly to score Gibson and increase the C-N lead to 3-0. The sac fly was Nathan's first career RBI.
The ball never left the infield in the bottom of the second inning, but the Flames scored twice. An infield single by Luke Collier and a fielder's choice for Isaiah French scored a pair of runs and it was 3-2 after two complete innings.
The Eagles scored again in the fourth inning thanks to a fielding error by the Flames right fielder to go up by two runs.
The Flames were able to tie the game at 4 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Two runners were in scoring position after a pair of walks to start the inning. Collier and French delivered just as the two did in the second, plating one run each on a single and sac fly.
Lee scored four times in the fifth inning to take the lead and never looked back from there. All three hits in the inning were RBI doubles and the Lee lead was 8-4 after five innings.
The lead extended on a Matthew Batts leadoff home run in the seventh inning.
Carson-Newman produced four runs on seven hits through the first four innings but could not figure out Lee reliever Colt McKibben, who slammed the door with five scoreless innings and only gave up three hits. The left-hander struck out eight C-N hitters to earn his first win of the year.
Brock Culpepper (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) suffered his third loss of the season, allowing three runs on three hits in 1 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. Five C-N pitchers combined to strikeout ten Lee hitters.
Floyd and Gibson each recorded their third multi-hit days of the season, both going 2 for 4 at the plate.
Collier and Batts combined for five of Lee's nine hits and drove in a combined six runs.
The Eagles return home for their South Atlantic Conference series of the season. The three-game series against Newberry starts on Friday at 2:00 p.m. All three games of the series can be seen on FloSports with your subscription or by visiting cneagles.com/live for a free audio-only stream on the Eagle Sports Network.
