JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A seven-run top of the second inning powered the King Tornado (6-2) to a 12-8 victory over the Carson-Newman Eagles (7-5, 3-0 South Atlantic Conference) at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on Wednesday afternoon.

The loss ends Carson-Newman's four-game winning streak, with each of the victories coming against ranked opponents.

King's Alex Gonzalez (2-1) earned the victory after giving up five runs on eight hits with five strikeouts during his five innings on the mound. Carson-Newman starter Ben McKinney (0-2) took the loss after giving up six runs (five earned) on three hits with a pair of walks and strikeouts in his inning and two-thirds on the mound.

The Tornado pounced on McKinney and the Eagles in the top of the second with a seven-run inning to lead 7-0. In all, King posted the seven runs thanks to four hits and a pair of Carson-Newman errors.

Carson-Newman answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning, thanks to a two-RBI single by Evan Kirkpatrick. The Eagles also scored in the third when Zach Long smacked an RBI double to cut King's lead to 7-3. The top of the fourth saw King add an RBI single and a sacrifice fly to increase its lead to 9-3. In the last of the fifth, the Eagles got two runs back to trail 9-5 going into the late innings.

After King added a run in the top of the seventh to lead 10-5, Carson-Newman responded with a three-run bottom of the seventh. Bo Ausmus led off the inning with a solo homer, his third blast of the season. Kirkpatrick drove in his third run of the day on a groundout to short, and the last Carson-Newman run of the day came when Kevin Franchetti reached on an error by the King shortstop to bring home Bryan Everhart to make the game a two-run contest at 10-8.

King bounced back with a pair of runs in the eighth inning with a pair of RBI singles by Hunter Smith and Tyler Gaby to put the lead at 12-8, which would be the final score.

Ausmus, Trace Rogers, and Evan Jurjevic, all had multi-hit games for the Eagles, with Kirkpatrick and Ausmus both having multi-RBI games. Gaby led King at the plate with his 3-for-4 performance with four RBI.

The Eagles used seven pitchers in the game, with Kyle Wentz, Ryan Fillers, and Brandon Timmerman not allowing any runs during their time on the mound.

Carson-Newman will return to SAC play with a road series at Brevard, playing three games spread out across Friday and Saturday. Friday's opening game of the series is at 2 p.m., with Saturday's doubleheader beginning at noon.