HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Zach Boze produced his first-career four-hit game but Carson-Newman, despite scoring first, saw its comeback big fall short in a 9-7 contest to Alabama-Huntsville Wednesday afternoon at Charger Park.
"We played much better today," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "I thought we did a great job approaching the game. Michael Marcelak, Will Crain and Carson Pack did a really good job with their opportunities. We gave ourselves a chance against a really good club on the road which is all you can ask for. We have to clean up the left side of the infield. We are giving teams four outs and you can't do that against good teams."
Carson-Newman (15-10) had won back-to-back non-conference games prior to yesterday dropping a third straight contest to Alabama Huntsville (16-5), a team that is receiving votes in the NCBWA poll.
Boze produced four of the team's 10 hits on the day joining his high school teammate, Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) as the only players with multi-hit days as the latter went 2-for-5.
Each of the Eagles first three pitchers used in the game allowed multiple runs as C-N allowed 14 hits.
C-N opened the scoring in the second inning with Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) notching his first career RBI on an RBI single into center field to plate Boze.
Huntsville responded by scoring three in the bottom of the inning, all with two outs. Wes Anderson singled to right field and scored on a two-run homer to left field by Zach Duvall to make it a 3-1 contest.
The Eagles came back to tie the score in the fourth with Mark Treadway (Friendsville, Tenn.) singling to center field and Boze scoring on a ground out to level the margin at three.
For the second time in the game, the Chargers plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth. A two-run single to right from John Trousdale and a base hit by Colin Brewer expanded the margin to 6-3.
Boze produced an RBI double in the top of the sixth only to see the home team score twice in the bottom of the frame to expand the margin to 8-4.
In the seventh, Carson-Newman registered its best chance to get back in the game scoring three times anchored by a single by Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.) who scored on a wild pitch. After a sacrifice fly brought home a run and put the tying run at third with one out. On a fly out to right field, Garrett Bodine threw out the tying run at the dish to keep C-N behind 8-7.
An RBI double by Trousdale pushed the differential back to a pair of runs at 9-7 in the seventh. The Eagles had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in each the eighth and ninth innings but could not get a run.
Duvall went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs scored as one of four players with a multi-hit day on the Chargers side. Brewer knocked in a pair on two knocks. Caleb Brewer notched the save firing three scoreless innings with four punch outs and two hits allowed.
The Eagles turn their attention back to South Atlantic Conference play hosting UVa-Wise for the first time with the Cavaliers being league members. The series opens Friday at 2 p.m. for a three-game series with video and audio streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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