Coach Tom Griffin speaks about his team's 6-2 loss to Northwood.
VIDEO: Tom Griffin Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman went 0-13 with runners in scoring position on the day en route to a 6-2 loss to Northwood Saturday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex in game two action.
"Our pitchers had 13 walks today and that is a lot of freebies. You are not going to win a lot of games when you walk 13 batters," coach Tom Griffin said following the contest. "As a pitcher and as a catcher, you have to be able to adapt and get in the strike zone. We also had 13 strikeouts offensively and that was disappointing. Credit to their pitchers because they had a good day."
The Northwood Timberwolves got off to a hot start against Carson-Newman. Connor Foley doubled down the left field line to record the first hit of the game. After a sacrifice bunt from Brian Dombrowski, Gooch Greer (Dickson, Tenn.) made an errant throw down the third base line, on a pick off attempt, allowing Foley to score the first run of the game.
In the bottom of the second inning, C-N answered as Greer singled to center field and came around to score on a wild pitch from Tyler Jandron to even the score at 1-1.
In the top of the third inning, Eagle starter Ryan Eberle (Cookeville, Tenn.) walked three batters to load the bases. David Vinsky then doubled to right center to give the Timberwolves a 3-1 lead on the two-run insurance slash.
After a single to right field by Cade Snapp (Seymour, Tenn.), the Eagles had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the third inning. Paul Kirby (Goodlettsville, Tenn.) and Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) struck out consecutively to end the inning and the scoring threat for the Eagles.
The Timberwolves stayed hot in the fourth inning as Dombrowski doubled in Foley for the fourth run of the game for the visitors. The Eagles utilized three different pitchers to get out of the fourth inning as Hunter Dodson (Huntersville, N.C.) struck out a batter and Raneul Perez (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) yielded a ground out to pick up the final two outs.
"I thought Perez pitched well today. We have not been able to get him out there as much as we have liked so far, so we knew he was going to pitch some today," Griffin said. "He was solid and that was very encouraging."
Kirby led off the bottom of the sixth inning with single to left field. The first baseman eventually came in to score from third after the second wild pitch of the afternoon by Jandron. Eric Lynch (Boonton, N.J.) came to the plate with runners on second and third, but flew out to right field to end the inning and to end the scoring threat.
In the top of the eighth inning. Daniel Pulver stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and hit an RBI single to right field to increase the Timberwolves lead to 5-2. Robert Plohr (O'Fallon, Mo.) then walked the next batter with bases still loaded to hand Northwood a 6-2 advantage.
Carson-Newman put a couple of runners in scoring position in the final two frames but were unable to break through as the 27th out of the ballgame was recorded with the Timberwolves claiming victory over the Eagles in 6-2 fashion.
Jandron (1-0) picked up the win on the day for his first of the 2017 campaign as the southpaw went six innings of two-run baseball while yielding five hits in the process and six punch outs. Larry Wood corralled the three-inning save in a scorelss and hitless outing out of the bullpen.
Eberle (1-2) was tagged with the loss as the senior tallied just three innings of three-run ball. The right-hander yielded only two hits but walked five in the start. Dodson, Perez and Mo Foster (Murfreesboro, Tenn. ) all had scoreless appearances out of the bullpen while Ryan Victory (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Plohr surrendered a combined three runs.
"A lot of our young pitchers are getting reps and getting experience," Griffin said. "That is huge and I think they are doing a good job with that."
Ryan Addington (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the C-N offense with two hits on the afternoon, one of which was a double, with a stolen bag. Snapp, Kirby and Greer managed the other three hits on the day for the home squad.
"Again, I have to give credit to their pitchers. They had two solid left-handed pitchers today," Griffin said. "We had a lot of swings and misses with two strikes today. We have some days where we are lights on and others when we are struggling with two strikes. That is hitting for you."
Vinsky tallied a three-hit at the plate with two doubles and two RBI's on the afternoon. Foley and Dombrowski also notched multi hits in the contest with a combined one RBI between the two.
Game three's rubber match is set for Sunday at noon as the Eagle Sports Network will be taking the airwaves 10 minutes prior with Michael Wottreng on the call.
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