VIDEO: Matt Parkinson Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman placed a trio of players on preseason All-South Atlantic Conference units announced by the league on Tuesday with Brayden Coe landing on the top squad and Matt Bradley and Matt Parkinson securing a slot on the second team.
Coe tallied six awards in 2021 including being named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-American team as an honorable mention selection, the first C-N player to earn that laurel since Kyle Koeneman in 2012. Overall he was the 24th player in C-N history to earn the top plaudit in the land and fifth pitcher. The senior right-hander is the eighth individual in the school's NCAA era to earn All-American honors fourth pitcher, the first since Brett Hontz in 2008.
On top of being a preseason All-SAC selection, he was named to the NCBWA's preseason All-Southeast Region unit on Monday. Coe was the 28th pitcher in the history of the program to net all-conference honors and the 10th to get a spot on the top club. He piled up a wonderful season going 7-0 with a 2.23 ERA in 10 starts striking out 63 batters and walking just 17 in 64 2/3 innings pitched. The Eagles were 9-2 as a team in his outings this year. His seven victories are good for second in the league and 37th in the country while his four complete games top the SAC and are 13th in the country. His ERA is fourth in the conference while he ranks ninth hits per nine innings (6.26), eighth in strikeout to walk ratio (3.81) and walks per nine (2.63). His 63 strikeouts are second.
With seven wins on the bump, he moved into an 11-way tie for ninth on the program's single-season wins list most recently accomplished by Vince Apicella in 2015. The Bridgeville, Pa. native hurled five quality starts on the year with one his gems coming on March 20 against Queens when he fanned 10 over nine innings giving up a run with two outs in the ninth inning. It is one of four times he has thrown at least eight frames along with March 5 against UVA Wise and April 17 at Coker. Each time he only allowed one run.
Despite letting a lead-off batter reach at a .388 clip on the year, opponents hit .133 with runners on base, .186 with two outs and .175 as a right-handed batter. He did not yield more than seven hits in any game on the year with seven of nine netting four or fewer.
Putting the finishing touches on an historic season, Coe was named to the SAC All-Tournament team. The Bridgeville, Pa. native kickstarted the weekend as the Eagles faced elimination in the play-in game against Mars Hill on Thursday night with the best start of his impressive year. The Bridgeville Pa. native yielded three hits, one walk and one hit batter on the day fanning nine to become the first C-N hurler since Apicella on April 28, 2015, 268 games and 2,190 days ago, to fire a complete game, nine-inning shutout. The first-team All-SAC pick allowed only one man to reach scoring position stranding Austin Treadway in the third.
Three days later against eventual tournament champion and National Champion Wingate he closed the door for his first-career save throwing 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 ninth. He finished his senior year with a 2.23 earned run average in 64 2/3 innings pitched, the best by a C-N pitcher in its NCAA history with minimum of 40 innings on the rubber.
"I have to continue what I did last year with the prep and offseason work," Coe said. "This year has been more of a leadership role. I have taken that head on so I am excited about this year. For me personally it's another year to get better, work on my stuff and lead this team to where we want to be. If you look at the outfield and infield, you have a lot of older guys that can show the younger guys the road. We have a lot of innings played and we are a veteran group of guys. I am excited to get it going."
Matt Bradley (Talbott, Tenn.) has pitched in 43 games over his career and is coming off of his best campaign as a full-time starting pitcher. In 2021, the right-hander posted a 4.38 ERA striking out 49 in 49 1/3 innings recording three wins and a complete game effort. Overall he has throw 160 2/3 innings for his career with 10 wins and 180 punch outs.
The right-hander opened his senior year as the SAC Pitcher of the Week behind a career-high matching 11 strikeouts over six innings at Limestone on Feb. 4. Later in the first month of the year, he secured his third win over a top 10 team in his career working six stanzas at No. 7 Catawba on Feb. 27 in a 10-6 win as he fanned six and overcame two long balls giving up one earned run (six total). Closing the year on a strong note, the Volunteer State native polished off a stretch of three quality starts out of four with six-inning, seven-strikeout game at Coker on April 17.
Adding to his postseason prowess, he took home the win guiding Carson-Newman to an 8-6 win over Tusculum in the SAC Tournament on April 23 firing six innings scattering five hits and four walks allowing four earned runs. Bradley went at least six innings in six of his nine starts and posted a 3.72 ERA in his final 29 innings on the rubber.
Matt Parkinson (Whitesboro, N.Y.) flashed an electric piece of lumber from the start of his first year at Mossy Creek tallying multi-hit games in each of his first two appearances launching three homers in his first eight at-bats. He produced at least one RBI in each of his first four games and eight of the first 10 outings. The catcher opened career with 12-game hitting streak homering in six of those hitting .486, 18-37, with seven long balls and 15 RBIs.
In the SAC Tournament, he collected five hits and drove in four runs. All told, the backstop finished the season with nine multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI efforts. Defensively, he committed a total of four errors and threw out 58 percent of would-be base stealers.
"I have to give credit to my teammates and coaches more than anything," Parkinson said. "The experience here at Carson-Newman really isn't like the experience I have had at other schools that I've been at the JUCO level or Charleston. Credit to those guys that have helped me throughout this journey. If you look at teams in the past, Catawba for example, they have a lot of older guys and are a veteran group that will help us a lot."
The Eagles open their season on Feb. 1 opening the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex against Milligan. Every home game in 2022 will feature a high definition video feed with an accompanying audio stream available on cneagles.com/live.
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