VIDEO: Carson-Newman vs Lenoir-Rhyne April 2023 Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (15-14, 8-7 SAC) prepares for an important conference series as it travels to take on Lenoir-Rhyne (20-12, 8-7 SAC) this weekend at Durham Field.
Carson-Newman closes the month of March with a critical road conference series with Lenoir-Rhyne. If the season ended today, both teams would be the final two spots in the top eight of the SAC standings to make the conference tournament. The Bears and the Eagles are both 8-7 in league action.
C-N took two of three from #15 Lenoir-Rhyne last season in Mossy Creek. It was the club's first series win over a ranked team since the 2018 campaign when they beat 14th-ranked Northwood. It was the first time C-N won a three-game set over a ranked SAC foe since sweeping 19th-ranked Tusculum in 2013. Lenoir-Rhyne got revenge on the Eagles in the South Atlantic Conference tournament with 7-3 and 7-4 wins to end Carson-Newman's season. Carson-Newman leads the all-time ledger 65-39 and has won three of its last four games in Hickory.
Freshman Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) continues to rake at the plate for C-N in his rookie season. The third baseman has hit safely in nine straight games and has been on base in 13 straight games. Both of those streaks are the longest by a C-N hitter this season. Senior Ryan Potts (Dandridge, Tenn.) has also been seeing the ball well as of late. The outfielder has hit safely in seven straight games and is hitting .350 this season.
Carson-Newman ended its four-game losing streak with a walk-off win in extra innings on Sunday against Catawba and carried that momentum to a Wednesday doubleheader sweep of Montevallo. It's the third time this season that C-N has won three consecutive games, but has not won more than that. The walk-off win in game one forced an impressive five-run comeback with just six outs to go. C-N hit three home runs and scored six runs in the final two frames to win for the first time this season when trailing after six innings.
After starting the conference season 4-7, Lenoir-Rhyne has found its groove by winning four straight games in league play. During this four-game streak, LR has scored ten runs or more three times and has limited opposing offenses to eight runs or fewer. The Bears have played well at home this season, sporting an 11-4 record and won seven of their first eight games in Hickory.
Chris Ramirez's team has the number one scoring offense in the SAC and seventh-best nationally, averaging more than nine runs per contest. It's an offense that has scored in double digits 11 times and has a win this season over St. Michael's in which it won 36-2. The 36 runs that the Bears produced were the most that a LR team has posted in a single game since their 32-2 victory over Emmanuel (Ga.) on Feb. 12, 2017.
Seven regular starters are hitting above .300 for an offense that leads the conference in walks with 173 this season, 13th most nationally. Tyler McPeak has a team-high seven home runs and 39 RBI and has started 31 of the 32 games. The 39 RBI are the second-most in the SAC.
Despite the ninth-highest earned run average as a team, LR does have a pair of shutouts this season. It's a staff that walks at least five batters per game but does strikeout almost nine batters per game, the second-most in the conference. Kellen Gradisar is the team's top reliever with 27 innings and a 3.33 ERA. He has 17 strikeouts to just six walks.
The three-game series starts tomorrow at 5:00 pm and wraps up with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. All three contests will air with an audio-only stream on cneagles.com/live.
