JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.. – Riding high after an explosive offensive showing, Carson-Newman is back after a two-week layoff returning to South Atlantic Conference action against Queens. Both doubleheaders are scheduled for noon first pitches from the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
The Eagles torched UVA Wise two weeks ago cranking out a .480 team batting average during the four-game series crushing seven home runs and scoring 45 runs in 25 innings. The showing propelled coach Tom Griffin's club to the elite level of Division II. Carson-Newman (11-4, 6-2) is top 10 nationally in six different categories upping its team batting average to .350.
Home runs have played a big role with the club ranking seventh in the country with 18 producing a dozen during an eight-game long ball stretch. If the program extends it to nine on Saturday, it would be the first time in recorded history (since 2007), the Orange and Blue have homered in nine in a row.
C-N is capitalizing in crunch time tallying a .363 team batting average with runners in scoring positon. Eleven different players have at least three hits in those situations with Brendan Krob (Justice, Ill.) and Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonville, S.C.) pacing the unit with .545 and .538 margins respectively.
On the mound, the pitching staff has hunkered down with runners on base yielding a .276 batting average against. Brayden Coe (Bridgeville, Pa) has faced the most situations and given up seven hits in 36 tries, a .194 clip. Tyler Shaver (Dandridge, Tenn.) is not far behind with a .238 batting average against, 5-for-21.
The Eagles have played Queens (6-15, 4-12) in one series since the Royals started their program in 2018 earning a three-game sweep on April 13-15, 2019 racking up a 26-4 run differential and benefitting from 13 errors. On the mound, the C-N pitching staff yielded six walks and a .231 batting average against posting a 1.44 ERA and 29 punch outs in 25 innings.
Coach Tom Griffin secured his 400th win as the skipper at Mossy Creek in a 12-2 game one victory to become the fourth coach in the history of the SAC to hit that overall total at one school doing so in his 14th campaign at Mossy Creek.
John Sharpe paced the offense over the weekend with seven RBIs hitting the team's lone home run of the weekend. Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) went 6-for-13 with three RBIs and three runs scored for the series.
Ross Steedley took over the program in April 2020. Despite the team sitting in 12th on the league table, his club has played nine games decided by three runs or fewer. The highlight of the season so far came on March 10 when the unit beat second-ranked Mount Olive, currently slotted No. 16, 8-4.
With the lumber, the Royals rank 11th in the conference in batting average (.259), on-base percentage (.354) and runs per game (5.0). They have been held to five or few runs 16 times with eight games of three runs or less. There have been five occasions where the lineup has fanned 10 times.
Preseason second-team All-SAC pick Noah Jones has started eight times this year tallying a .286 batting average. Mason Pickard is the team's top hitter with a .324 average launching a pair of homers with seven extra-base hits.
Defensively, Queens ranks 179th in the country out of 212 teams with a team fielding percentage of .940 having made at least one error in 19 of 21 outings. There are 12 affairs with two or more including a six-error contest against Newberry on March 6 losing 11-3 to the Wolves.
On the mound, the hurlers are yielding the third-fewest hits per nine innings with slightly less than nine. However that number is deceiving with the team walking over five batters per nine stanzas with eight games of six or more. The team has allowed 10 or more runs seven times.
Nick Charleson is the reigning SAC Pitcher of the Week after a complete game, one-hit shutout of Tusculum, the top scoring team in the SAC, in a 3-0 win last week. He has worked into the seventh inning in four of his five starts this year.
All four games this weekend will air on the Eagle Sports with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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