HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Carson-Newman (24-24) set the tone early scoring the game's first five runs and got a gem from senior reliever Grif Hughes to advance into the winner's bracket of the South Atlantic Conference baseball tournament with an 8-4 win over the second-seeded Coker Cobras (31-19) on Friday night at Tom J. New Field.
"We did what we did last week against Diaz, scored early and often on him," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Fortunate to get that good start but the key was obviously Grif Hughes and Spencer Bright and the job those two did. That offense is tough to get out, they are scrappy, put balls in play. They really did an impressive job against their hitters. Good win to come out on the road against a team that swept you. I thought this game said a lot about our guys hanging in there and not panicking and obviously Grif and Spencer were the key."
Firing a career-long 6 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, Grif Hughes (Knoxville, Tenn.) earned his ninth win of the season. He now sits in sole possession of the sixth-most wins in a single-season for C-N. The southpaw struck out a career-high eight and retired ten consecutive hitters in a four inning stretch.
"Nothing changes, yeah it's the postseason, but at the end of the day its just pitching," Hughes said. "Go out there and try to get three outs and come back in. I was locating my fastball well today, better than I have all year. My slider played off of that as well. I got to see this team not even a week ago, so coming back to it and making adjustments was important."
Carson-Newman recorded 15 hits as a team, the third-most in a game this season. The freshman Logan Floyd led the hitting attack with his second career four-hit game. James Denten bounced back in quality fashion at the dish with a three-hit day driving in four runs.
James Denten (Mt Prospect, Ill.) began the scoring launching his tenth home run of the season over the right field wall to give the Eagles the 1-0 lead after the first inning.
Carson-Newman stayed hot with the bats into the second inning. Will Gibbs (Harrisburg, Ill.) and Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) recorded back to back singles and moved into scoring position after a sacrifice bunt. A walk loaded the bases with two outs. Aaron Diaz walked Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) to score C-N's second run to make it 2-0. The Eagles kept the line moving as Denten cracked his second hit through the right side to score two more runs. Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) kept the line moving with second hit, a single to left field to make it 5-0 Eagles.
Coker would respond back with runs of its own in the bottom of the second. After a sac fly, Donovan Frayer single up the middle to make it a 5-2 game after two innings.
The Cobras got within two runs on an RBI single. With two runners in scoring position, Grif Hughes (Knoxville, Tenn.) entered the game with a 2-2 count and threw one pitch to record a strikeout and end the inning.
The Eagles added on to their lead in the top of the fifth inning. Back to back leadoff hits from Floyd and Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) put two runners in scoring position. Gibbs did his job with a sac fly to right field to extend C-N's lead back to three runs.
Hughes continued to blank the Cobras, putting up four consecutive zeros including seven in a row from innings five through seven.
Denten continued his strong hitting at the dish, driving in Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) with a sac fly and it was 7-3 C-N.
Hughes continued to be excellence on the mound and retired a tenth straight batter after a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
An error broke up the incredible stretch, but the lefty Hughes worked around the bottom of the ninth that saw Coker score once and get multiple base runners aboard. It never managed to get the tying run to the plate and Carson-Newman held on for the four-run win.
Coker starting pitcher Aaron Diaz suffered his fourth loss of the season, firing two innings allowing five runs on six hits. Donovan Frayer had three hits while two other Cobras had multi-hit days as well.
Carson-Newman advances into the winner's bracket and will square off against the number six seed Newberry on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Fans can listen along with the action at cneagles.com/live. A video stream of the contest is available with a subscription.
