NEWBERRY, S.C. – With the final week of the regular season on tap, Carson-Newman starts a six-game road swing on Wednesday traveling to Newberry for the penultimate South Atlantic Conference challenge of the year starting at noon for a doubleheader.
Carson-Newman (20-12, 15-9) is looking to get back on track after dropping a SAC series for the second time this year while losing each of its last six road games. The last victory away from home for the Eagles came on Feb. 28 at seventh-ranked Catawba, a 9-5 win in game three of the series.
After splitting a non-conference doubleheader on Feb. 20, C-N and Newberry (18-11, 15-7) are facing off in the SAC regular season with the Eagles on top 50-28 all time. While the unit is 31-8 against the Wolves in Jefferson City, it is 12-17 in games played at the Smith Road Complex.
Griffin's ball club snapped a six-game losing streak in the Palmetto State the last time the programs played a series at Newberry with the C-N taking two out of three games on Feb. 23-24, 2018. It was the first road series win against the Wolves since 2013. C-N pitching fanned 26 batters against a group of Wolves that was the most difficult in the league to retire on strikes entering play.
When the teams met in a non-conference doubleheader on Feb. 20, the Wolves won the first game 7-1 before the Eagles came back to earn a 6-5 walk-off win. The Eagles produced a total of a dozen hits in the twin-bill with Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) leading the way with four hits in seven at bats.
Coach Russell Triplett has guided his club to a 43-10 record at home since the start of 2019 winning 24 of the 27 home affairs in SAC play. Newberry has won eight of the nine home SAC series with the lone exception coming when Wingate took two of three on Feb. 21-22, 2020.
After dropping three of four at Limestone to begin the month, the Wolves have won seven straight games, the longest winning streak in the league beating Mars Hill and Lincoln Memorial. Of the last six outings, no games have been decided by more than three runs with the pitching staff allowing an average of 4.5 runs per game.
Jack Harris, the SAC Player of the Week named on Tuesday, has been the catalyst of the lineup riding an eight-game hitting streak where he is hitting .452 (14-for-31) with a pair of long balls, 14 RBIs and 13 runs scored. His .391 season batting average is good for fifth in the conference.
Newberry is the top stolen base threat in the conference with 64 on the season with Nick Butler leading the league with 18 swipes in 20 attempts. Despite eight games without a steal, the team racks them up in bunches with four games in April with at least six including a season-high nine at Limestone on April 3.
Speed is the key piece for the unit as the program has a total of five home runs in 29 games. Harris has three, Luke Orr and Colin Allman each have one as the team has not produced multiple long balls in the same game this year but it has 47 doubles or triples.
On the rubber, the team has a 5.56 team earned run average ranking eighth in the conference giving up 24 home runs. The hurlers have not fanned more than nine batters in the last nine games with 11 outings of five or less.
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