JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the first time in 2021, Carson-Newman opens the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on Friday at 1 p.m. against Mars Hill in a non-conference series. The Eagles are slated to make a return trip to Mars Hill on Sunday for a doubleheader starting at noon. The change was made to the original schedule.
Since Carson-Newman (2-1) joined Division II in 1994, the Eagles are 23-4 in home openers including 13-2 under Griffin since he took over in 2006. The Eagles have won eight straight home openers with their last loss in a lidlifter at home coming on Feb. 21, 2012 when King took home a 10-7 victory.
Griffin has led his group to a 97-50 record at home since the beginning of the 2015 campaign. In that span the group is posting just shy of eight runs per game scoring 1,134 over those 147 contests. Last season, the unit blasted 17 of its 25 long balls when playing at home and swiped 34 bases in 14 games.
On the mound, the pitching staff allowed nearly two fewer runs per game in games played at Mossy Creek despite surrendering 18 of the 21 home runs yielded on the year. The hurlers did fan nearly 10 batters per nine innings pitched with eight games of double-digit strikeouts.
Carson-Newman and Mars Hill have met 93 times entering the weekend with the Eagles holding the lead in the series at 60-33 with a 30-17 mark at home. After a drought of nearly seven seasons, the Orange and Blue have won each of the last two series played between the two programs winning the final two last year after losing 14-13 in game one at Mossy Creek.
In game one of 2020's series, the Eagles fell behind 8-0 before taking the lead less than two innings later. It was tied at 13 after six stanzas with the Lions scoring the winning run in the top of the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Scottie Lee.
C-N bounced back to conclude the series behind a strong start from Tyler Shaver (Dandridge, Tenn.). The righty struck out 12 batters in game one of the twin-bill over eight innings. Mike Wroth hit three home runs in the pair of contests driving in seven and scoring seven times. The team stole 13 bases in 15 tries and struck out 33 batters in 25 innings.
This weekend is the opening weekend for the Lions who will play their first game since March 11, 2020 when the club won at Augusta 12-9 scoring the final four runs of the game including three in the 10th to break the tie capped by a two-run homer from Trevor Bailey.
A year ago, Mars Hill dropped its final two conference series of the year to Queens and C-N after opening the season by taking two out of three at home against UVA Wise. The long ball played a key role a year ago with the unit blasting 23 home runs. Nine different players had at least one and six had three or more.
Offense was the team's strong suit with seven runs per game, fourth-most in the league, leading the conference with 50 doubles and hit batters as 39 players got plunked during the season. The Lions drew 130 walks, second to Tusculum among SAC schools and sixth in the country.
On the rubber, the pitching staff was last in the league in team earned run average to the tune of an 8.18 clip. It surrendered the most walks per nine innings at 5.91 while giving up nearly a dozen hits per game, the second-most.
No players were named to a preseason All-SAC club but junior Ruben Trillo is the team's leading hitter after hitting .329 with a team-high four long balls driving in 22 runs. He had six multi-hit games including a 3-for-4 day with two RBIs in the series opener at Mossy Creek.
A.J. Chacon is the team's top pitching option after working 32 2/3 innings across six starts with a 4.41 ERA finishing seventh in the SAC in punch outs with 34. He worked at least five innings and had five or more strikeouts in every outing except for his start at C-N. In the series finale he gave up four earned runs in three frames.
Both home games will feature audio and video streams free of charge by visiting cneagles.com/live for the play-by-play broadcast on the home of Carson-Newman athletics, the Eagle Sports Network.
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