FOREST CITY, N.C.-- Carson-Newman broke a late five-all tie when Troy Zawadski scored on an interference call in the top of the eighth to spark the Eagles to a 6-5 victory over Catawba in the first round of the 2012 Food Lion SAC Baseball Tournament.
After loading the bases in the top of the eighth, Carson-Newman put the squeeze play on. Charging home from third, Zawadski was caught in a run-down, but it was ruled he was interfered with, allowing the run to score. That run proved to be the difference in the Eagles 6-5 victory.
Lance Reed paced Carson-Newman offensively with two RBIs. Cameron Beard and Ryan Bostian each had two RBI for Catawba. The Eagles advance to face the winner of the Brevard-Wingate game at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. Catawba will face Wingate at noon tomorrow.
Carson-Newman jumped out to score the game's first three runs over the first two innings. A Reed sacrifice fly gave the Eagles a 1-0 after the top of the first. Bo Ausmus' RBI-double extended the lead to 3-0 after two.
A sac fly by Brett Underwood cut the Eagle lead to 3-1 after three. Eagle pitcher Evan Faithful and Indian counterpart JJ Jankowski traded zeroes over the next three frames to keep each team's respective bats in check.
Carson-Newman extended its lead to 5-1 in the top of the seventh, with two runs scoring on an error.
The Indians overcame the four-run deficit to tie the score in the bottom of the frame. A two-run double by Bostian cut the deficit to 5-3. After a groundout, Chris Dula reached on an error to extend the inning. Cameron Beard took advantage of the extra outs with a two-run single to right to knot the score at five-apiece.
Brandon Timmerman earned the save for Carson-Newman. Timmerman worked out of a bases-loaded, one out jam in the bottom of the eighth and closed out the Indians in the ninth to earn the save.
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