JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – To put a bow on the end of fall camp, Carson-Newman baseball hosts its annual Blue versus Orange World Series this week in a best-of-four intrasquad event starting Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. inside of the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex with the final three games on a 3:15 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Kevin Ketvirtis is coaching the Blue team and James Sofield will lead the charge for the Orange club. The first picks by position for Ketvirtis were Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) on the infield, Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) in the outfield, Matt Parkinson (Whitesboro, N.Y.) behind the plate and Matt Bradley (Talbott, Tenn.) on the mound. Sofield countered with Henry Jackson (Waxhaw, N.C.), Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.), Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) and Tyler Shaver (Jefferson City, Tenn.).
The last Fall World Series was played in 2019 and saw John Topoleski guide the Blue club to a 7-5 victory to clinch a 3-1-1 series victory holding a 31-27 runs scored edge on the week. The hitting MVP Award was given to Tyler Thompson of Blue. There were co-MVPs for the pitching award as Brayden Coe (Bridgeville, Pa.) and Hunter Long both earned the award.
Carson-Newman is coming off of another successful campaign with 27 victories and a deep run in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament that saw the team be the final club without a loss before falling to eventual national champion Wingate and Newberry on the final day of play from Smokies Stadium. Coach Tom Griffin returns eight of the team's top eight hitters and seven of the top eight hurlers anchored by Coe, an All-American in 2021.
American League rules with a designated hitter will be employed for games one and three and the Orange team will be the home club while National League rules will be used for games two and four. Each contest will be seven innings.
The winner of the series earns a championship shirt while the losing team has to do field work and paint the facilities. If the series finishes in a tie, runs scored will be the tiebreaker.
The team that scores the most total runs over the course of the five contests gets a meal at Gondolier, a spot for traditional Italian fare, plus Greek specialties & oven-baked sandwiches.
The Eagle Sports Network will provide the audio call of each of the four games in the series. The stream can be found by visiting cneagles.com/live as fans are encouraged to listen to the broadcast team through the week. Recaps of each game will be posted on cneagles.com following play each day. A full broadcast schedule will be released on Twitter on @CNbaseball.
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