JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Brevard's Tarron Robinson hit two of his team's four home runs and the Carson-Newman Eagles surrendered eight unearned runs as the Tornados avoided a South Atlantic Conference series sweep on a cold and snowy Sunday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
Robinson hit a three-run home run in the first and added a two-run blast in the seventh to carry a Tornado offense that piled up 17 hits.
With the win, Brevard moves to 9-9 and 5-4 in SAC play. The Eagles fall to 5-4 in league play and 8-12 on the season.
After committing only one error and holding Brevard to six runs, five coming in the late innings, during Saturday's sweep, the Eagles struggled to keep the ball down, and when they did, field it during Sunday's loss.
C-N had five errors, three at shortstop, playing without senior Troy Zawadzki, who was injured in Saturday's first game.
Brevard touched up Eagle starter Ryan Fillers for four runs in two innings. Robinson's first home run sailed just inside the left field foul pole to give BC a 3-0 lead in the first. He scored Cody Queen, who walked, and Eric Renegar, who reached on an infield hit on a softly hit ball to short.
Carson-Newman did answer in the first.
C-N teed off on starter Tyler Lequire to take a 4-3 lead after an inning. Phillip Duncan, Zach Long, and Kyle Koeneman opened the game with three-straight doubles to quickly cut the lead to 3-1.
Junior Lance Reed followed with an RBI double, the first of his four hits on the day, to cut the BC lead to 3-2. Koeneman would score on a wild pitch and sophomore Trace Rogers added an RBI single as C-N answered Brevard first big inning of the day to take a 4-3 lead.
BC tied the game in the second Champ Stuart RBI single to square things at 4-4.
The Tornados would take the lead for good in the fourth as Stuart ripped a three-run home run out to left off of reliever Lucas Watson. The blast was the highlight of a 5-for-6 day for Stuart, who finished with five RBIs and four singles.
C-N's lone highlight the rest of the way was a towering three-run home run by Koeneman in the sixth to cut the lead to 12-7. The blast is his fifth of the season.
C-N struggled to put positive plays together to mount a rally.
Nine Eagles pitchers combined for 10 walks and four hit batsmen.
Brevard out-hit the Eagles 17-11. C-N hurt rally opportunities with 12 strikeouts at the plates.
The loss detracts from a 4-for-5 effort by Reed. Koeneman also went 3-for-4 and was hit by a pitch.
Zach Long added two doubles, a walk, and three runs for C-N.
Robinson was 2-for-5 for Brevard with five RBIs and four runs scored. Queen added three hits and scored a game-high five runs.
Carson-Newman returns to action on Tuesday at Maryville College. First pitch is at 6 p.m. in Maryville, Tenn.
-C-N-
