JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Trevecca Nazarene (24-17) scored ten times in the opening inning and never looked back to defeat Carson-Newman (23-21) 18-5 on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
The loss gives Carson-Newman 13 consecutive losses in Tuesday games. The Eagles also have their six game home winning streak come to an end.
"I'm trying to process that we have lost 13 straight Tuesdays," Carson-Newman head baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "That is something that we have to sit back and evaluate. We hadn't played Trevecca in a while, Coach Sain and his team did a tremendous job. Their moving into a new conference next year the Gulf South. They'll do well. All we can do right now is get ready for Coker. We are on to Coker."
Trevecca Nazarene exploded for ten runs on seven hits in the opening inning. The Trojans scored all of their runs on home runs in the inning, starting with a one-out grand slam. Three more home runs were hit in the inning, including back-to-back bombs with two outs.
The Eagles began to trim into the lead in the first inning. With two on and two out, Logan Floyd launched his fourth home run of the year over the left field wall to plate three runs.
Brock Culpepper (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was able to cool off the Trojans bats in the second and third innings, firing two scoreless innings. That effort was followed by scoreless innings from Xavier Hart and Jaxson Seritt to allow C-N to trim into the deficit.
C-N was able to cut into that lead some more. With two outs and a runner on base, Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) lifted his sixth home run of the season over the left field wall to score two runs and it was a five-run game after four innings.
After a 1-2-3 fifth inning, the Eagles had chances to cut into the deficit some more. Two singles put runners on first and second with one out, but C-N left the runners on base.
The Trojans would erupt for five more runs in the sixth inning. A single and a walked was preceded by a throwing error to a base runner trying to steal third to score a run. After back to back outs were recorded, Trevecca had a chance to drive in more runs with the bases loaded and did just that. Abbott Lawerence hit the Trojans' second grand slam of the day to make it 15-5 after six innings.
The deficit grew larger for C-N as three more runs scored on singles to make it 18-5. Ethan Patch (Whitehall, N.Y) was able to limit the damage by retiring three consecutive hitters after the first six in the inning all reached base.
Williams finished a triple away from the cycle, finishing with his sixth career three-hit game. Floyd and McLain each had two hit days, their 10th and 11th efforts of the season.
Haven Mangrum went five for five at the plate for Trevecca Nazarene, while Lawrence and Milam combined to drive in eleven runs. Aaron McCoy threw two innings of two run ball to earn his second win of the season.
Andrew Bench suffered his first loss of the season, allowing ten runs on seven hits.
The 18 runs scored is the most allowed by C-N in a game this season.
Carson-Newman wraps up its regular season with a three-game series starting Friday against Coker. The contests 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.
