BRISTOL, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (19-24) got its bats cooking in its final game before the Food Lions South Atlantic Conference Tournament with a 13-8 slugfest win over King (27-17). 

Evan Kirkpatrick (Jefferson City, Tenn.) led the charge offensively for the Eagles.  The sophomore was four-for-five with three RBI and a pair of runs scored. 

Carson-Newman pounded out 18 hits to 11 for King.  The 18 base knocks were the most for C-N all year. 

The teams twisted to a 4-4 tie through three innings before a pair of big innings pushed the Eagles to the win. 

Carson-Newman smashed out a four-run fourth and a five-run seventh to cement the win.

The Eagles started out the fourth with three straight singles before Bo Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) brought in a run with the help of a fielding error at short.  A Shade Jett (Talbot, Tenn.) sacrifice fly, and two-RBI Bryan Everhart (Greeneville, Tenn.) single through the left side rounded out the scoring for the inning. 

The seventh was more of the same, Carson-Newman pounding out hits with the inning continuing with the aid of a Tornado error.  A Gooch Greer (Dickson, Tenn.) double brought in Cody Fox (Seymour, Tenn.) before Kirkpatrick blasted a two-RBI single through the left side to score two more. 

The Eagles completed the scoring in the seventh with a Joe Tipton (Dandridge, Tenn.) single and an Ausmus single.  

Five Eagles had  multi-hit days and four produced two-RBI or more. 

Brandon Timmerman (Seymour, Tenn.) collected his second win in relief for the Eagles after giving up four hits in four innings. 

The Eagles begin play in the SAC tournament Thursday at noon against Catawba. 

-CN-