VIDEO: Emory & Henry Highlights Feb. 2023 Games 1 and 2
VIDEO: Emory & Henry Highlights Feb. 2023 Game 3
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the second straight weekend, Carson-Newman (10-10, 5-4 SAC) hits the road for a South Atlantic Conference series as it visits Emory & Henry (3-19, 1-11 SAC) for a three-game series starting with a doubleheader at noon on Saturday.
"I want us to keep doing what we are doing and that's to trust the process of training," Carson-Newman head baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "These guys need to continue to believe in themselves and build up their self-confidence that way they can have confidence for their team. We've had plenty of quality at bats. Good hitters put together more quality at bats than less and right now we just haven't had that consistency.
In a smaller sample size, Carson-Newman is hitting .295 at the plate on the road despite producing just one win in five tries this season. At home the Eagles have just a .246 batting average. The much higher batting average away from Mossy Creek has resulted in a worse OBP than it has at home, .386 to .360.
In half of its games this season, the Eagles held the opposing offense to four runs or less, winning eight of those 12 games. C-N's team ERA is 5.21, the fourth best in the SAC this season. In the month of March, Carson-Newman's ERA is a whole point lower than it was in February.
Carson-Newman has done well at getting runners on base. Tom Griffin sees the leadoff batter get on base more than 40% of the time through 20 games this season.
The Eagles will meet with the Wasps for just the fourth time in program history this weekend. The first three meetings came in Jefferson City last season. Carson-Newman scored the final 17 runs in a doubleheader to sweep Emory & Henry last season. The weekend capped off with a series finale 8-6 win over the Wasps. Trailing 6-4 in the 5th inning, Carson-Newman (5-6) used four unanswered runs, four scoreless pitched innings, and quality defense to comeback and complete the weekend sweep. Trey Miller (Rocky Point, N.Y.) homered in the 8th inning to lift C-N in front. This weekend's series will be just the second series the Wasps and the Eagles play against each other, but the first that will be a conference matchup.
It's been a brutal start to the season for E&H. The Wasps played their first 20 games of the season away from home. Their first home game came against Concord on Tuesday, a game in which they lost 9-7. Emory & Henry enters this league series 3-19 this season and just 1-11 in conference affairs. E&H has lost five straight games with four of those coming by six runs or more.
Jermie Greene Jr was named to the preseason All-SAC Second-Team after hitting an impressive .416 at the plate last season. So far this year, he has a .333 average with two home runs and 11 RBI. Jared Foley has a team high 28 hits, 12 RBI and 8 extra base hits. Eight different hitters have hit a home run for the Wasps. As a team, they hit .251.
The Wasps pitching staff has a team ERA of 9.61 through 22 games. They have allowed seven straight opponents to score nine runs or more. 18 of the 22 games have seen the opposing offense score at least eight runs. Bryson Wagner has made six starts and has a team-high 36 strikeouts in 34 innings with a 5.82 ERA. Nick Cerrato and John McCarthy both have ERA's below 4.
Fans can follow along with the action with updates on Twitter (X) and Facebook at CN_eagles. A live stream of the game is available with a subscription to FloSports.
