HARROGATE, Tenn. – Opening up a five-game road trip, its longest, of the year, Carson-Newman makes the short drive to Lincoln Memorial for a three-game South Atlantic Conference series starting Friday at 6 p.m. wrapping up with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
"Records don't mean anything when you get to conference play," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "LMU is an outstanding organization. It's not going to be easy for us up there. It's a very good team. It's going to be a challenge for us playing up there and we know that. What we need to do is be better in our own right. We have to clean some things up, missing signs, lack of aggressiveness in certain areas that we expect."
Carson-Newman (14-6, 4-2) is looking to win a third straight SAC series to open the year for the first time since 2013 when the team opened the year 8-1 with sweeps of 19th-ranked Tusculum and Lenoir-Rhyne taking two out of three over Brevard. The last time the club won four straight came in 2005 recording three straights sweeps and opening 11-0 before a loss.
In order to continue its hot start in league action the Eagles will have to bust a trend against the Railsplitters. C-N has lost the last four and 13 of the last 14 games to Lincoln Memorial (6-13, 1-5). The only win in that stretch came in the 2018 series finale in Harrogate. During the current skid, the Eagles are being outscored 43-16.
LMU has won seven consecutive series since the last time C-N captured a series. That win came in 2011 when the Eagles won games one and three 14-12 and 6-5 respectively dropping the middle game by a 20-3 margin.
With the 'Splitters pulling ahead in the all-time series to a 37-33 lead, the Orange and Blue still hold a lead in road games at 18-17 in the first 35 meetings. Last season, the Eagles were swept at home giving up 34 runs. C-N's pitching staff allowed 41 hits and walked 16 batters, the most in any series to that point in the year. At the plate, the Eagles were fanned 27 times but launched three homers.
Lincoln Memorial was picked third in the SAC preseason poll but has to replace to the reigning ABCA Division II National Pitcher of the Year, Ethan Elliott. The southpaw was a tenth round pick in the MLB draft after setting school career records in career ERA (3.01), wins (37), starts (54), innings pitched (358) and strikeouts (402).
Coach Jeff Sziksai's team lost two of three to Queens and were swept by Newberry last weekend. Despite cranking the most homers in league play, seven, the club ranks 11th with 26 runs scored while the posting the lowest batting average, .221, with an average seven hits per game.
On the mound, the Railsplitters are in the middle of the pack in most areas with a 4.96 team ERA and along with the top pitching staff in the conference, Catawba, has not allowed a home run through six outings but opponents have swiped 14 bases, the most yielded.
LMU is 2-11 on the road so far on the year but has held serve at home winning four of six games in Harrogate. Both sides of the ball have scuffled with the offense posting a .235 average and 66 runs on the road while the pitching staff has an 8.14 ERA away from home. At Lamar Hennon Field the team is hitting .328 while the hurlers have a 3.46 ERA.
Brent Richey is one of the top home run hitters in the league racking up seven over the last 13 games while his teammates have combined for a dozen this year. As a junior, the Knoxville, Tenn. native posted six. Hitting streak?
The team's Friday night starting pitcher this season has been Devin Morris who appeared in 21 games, all in relief as a freshman in 2019. Despite striking out a team-high 21, he has walked 17 with a 1-4 record and a 9.45 ERA this season. A lot of that is skewed by his first start of the year where he gave up 11 recording five outs. He has walked at least two in every appearance and has yielded 12 runs albeit six earned in 9 1/3 SAC stanzas.
There will be live stats available by going to cneagles.com/livestats with live updates available by following @CNathletics on Twitter and visiting cneagles.com.
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