Ranked showdown in Mossy Creek as No. 21 C-N battles top ten Bears
Two teams tied for second place in the South Atlantic Conference meet this weekend in Mossy Creek, as No. 21 Carson-Newman (28-11, 16-5 SAC) battles No. 10/7 Lenoir-Rhyne (32-6, 16-5 SAC) in a three-game series starting tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
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1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 11 | 2 |
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1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | X | 10 | 11 | 1 |
Game 1
Game 1
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2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 2 |
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0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
Game 2
Game 2
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | X | 4 | 7 | 1 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two teams tied for second place in the South Atlantic Conference meet this weekend in Mossy Creek, as No. 21 Carson-Newman (28-11, 16-5 SAC) battles No. 10/7 Lenoir-Rhyne (32-6, 16-5 SAC) in a three-game series starting tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m.
It's a three-team race for the top two spots in the conference standings with just three weekends left in the regular season. The top two seeds in the final standings will host the opening round series. C-N and LR both trail first-place Catawba by just one game for first place. The Eagles play the Indians next week, while the Bears won't see them in conference play.
This matchup not only features two of the best teams in the conference, but also in the Southeast region. LR has the second highest winning percentage in the region and the second-most wins with 32, while C-N's 28 victories is tied for fourth-most. The Eagles wins may be more impressive, with 18 of them being against teams with above .500 records, second-most in the region.
Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne will meet for the third time in the past four seasons with the Bears as a ranked team. Both series were in Mossy Creek in 2022 and 2023. The Bears won the three-game series in 2022, while the Eagles won the series in 2023 taking two out of three games. C-N's series win two years ago was the program's first series win over a top 25 team in five years. It was the first three-game set win over a ranked SAC foe since sweeping No. 19 Tusculum in February of 2023. In a series with 107 meetings, C-N holds a 67-40 advantage. It has been almost a decade since either side won three matchups in a row.
The Eagles won their first ever series over a top ten foe earlier this season, when they took two of the three games in a series versus #6 Florida Southern on March 8th. C-N is 1-9-4 in series' all-time versus top ten clubs. This weekend, Tom Griffin's team can win another series versus a ranked foe. Since moving to Division II, Carson-Newman has never won multiple series over a ranked opponent in the same regular season. Under Griffin, C-N is 36-69 against ranked competition, with 23 of those wins coming in Mossy Creek.
Carson-Newman pitching has held opposing offenses to two runs or less 18 times this season. Over the past two seasons combined, C-N only did that 15 times. It's the second-most occurrences of holding an opponent to two runs or less in the Tom Griffin era. During the 2008 season, Carson-Newman baseball's winning season in DII, C-N held opponents to two runs or less 22 times throughout that season that featured a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
In conference play this season, Carson-Newman pitching has a 2.94 earned run average. In 21 conference games played, opponents have scored seven runs or more against C-N just twice. Over C-N's last four conference wins, the opposing offense has not scored more than two runs.
Under first-year head coach Adam Skoniecki, Lenoir-Rhyne has been one of the best teams in the country this season. The Bears started the year 11-1 and have continued that success throughout the entire season. LR heads to Mossy Creek winners of six straight games. It's LR's fourth winning streak of six or more games this season, with the longest being an eight-game streak back in February. In both major polls, LR is in the top ten and has been ranked as high as number two in the coaches poll, that ranking came just two weeks ago.
Mackenzie Wainwright is the best hitter on the third-best scoring offense in DII this season. The offense scores 10.8 runs per game and hits .364 at the plate. LR's 100 doubles, 87 home runs and .675 slugging percentage all rank first nationally. Wainwright's .469 batting average is fifth-best nationally while his 74 hits are the most in the country. He leads the team with 17 home runs, but two others are close behind with 16. Cole Stanford hits .400 with 16 home runs and 42 RBI this year and Sal Carricato has a team-high 59 RBI with his 16 long balls.
The Bears pitching staff has a 4.90 earned run average for the year, fourth-best in the South Atlantic Conference. Marshall transfer Andrew Harlow is the team's ace. In 65 innings of work in ten starts, the graduate student has a 2.49 ERA with 79 strikeouts, just 10 walks and has a 7-0 record. Gavin Marley is the closer with five saves in his 13 appearances. He has an ERA at 1.53 with 27 strikeouts in 17 innings on the mound.
The three-game home weekend series is scheduled to begin on Friday at 3:00 p.m. All games will air with a video stream available on FloSports at cneagles.com/flobase with a subscription. There will also be a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
