VIDEO: Jordan Griffin Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Four Carson-Newman hurlers fanned a dozen batters and seven Eagles drove in runs as coach Tom Griffin's group recorded its second shutout of the year on Tuesday at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex blanking King 11-0.
"This was a complete game," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "It all started with Matt Coles who has been a solid starter for us. We are fortunate to have a guy like him to be able to throw midweeks. He is a control guy that can throw three pitches. He mixes it up really well. He has a lot of confidence. When you get the type of pitching he gives you, it makes everything better. The defense is more aware because of the pace he is working. Offensively it was a really complete game."
Matt Coles (Winter Garden, Fla.) fired his second quality start of the year to improve to 2-0 on the season scattering four hits and a walk over six innings with five strikeouts. Carson Pack (Andersonville, Tenn.), Tyler D'Amico (Waxhaw, N.C.) and Clay Simpson (Erwin, Tenn.) combined to throw the final three innings fanning seven allowing two hits.
Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) paced the club with the first four-hit day of his career going 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Andrew Carpenter (Morristown, Tenn.) posted the first three-hit day of his career with a 3-for-3 day and an RBI. Henry Jackson (Waxhaw, N.C.) blasted the first roundtripper of his career going 2-for-4 with three runs scored.
"I have an approach every time I go up to bat not trying to do too much and doing what we practice every single day," Griffin said. "In [batting practice], I was trying to drive the ball backside not trying to do too much. Today that carried over and had a two-strike approach all day."
Carson-Newman (7-2) recorded a shutout over King (3-2) for the second time in the history of the series with the last coming in 1990, also an 11-0 win. The Eagles scored at least one run in six of the eight trips to the dish.
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Jackson was hit by a 1-2 pitch to start the bottom of the first and hustled to third base on a base hit by Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.). Kilian Daughtry (Simpsonville, S.C.) grounded out to short to plate the game's first run and put the Eagles ahead 1-0 after one.
With one out, Ricketts hit a routine fly ball to right-center field that Junior Renwick dropped allowing the junior to race to third base. Daughtry bounced a ball back over the mound to get the run home and push the margin to 2-0.
In the bottom of the fourth, Griffin laced a single back up the middle. After a sacrifice bunt, he was at second base when an errant pick-off throw went into center field. Griffin moved to third and scored when the ball slipped out of the center fielder's hand. Jackson followed by whacking a 3-1 pitch over the fence in left-center field for his first-career long ball in career at bat No. 199 to extend the lead to 4-0.
Carson-Newman scored three times with two outs in the fifth inning getting three consecutive run-producing singles from Griffin, Carpenter and Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.) to expand the differential to 7-0.
The Eagles continued to play add on in the sixth scoring three more times to push the lead out to 10-0. With two on base and two outs, Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) roped a double into the alley in right-center field to plate a run. Griffin followed with his fourth hit of the day flaring a hit over first base to score a pair.
After the lead-off man was plunked in the bottom of the seventh, Jacob Hoffman (Seymour, Tenn.) ripped a ball to the wall in right-center field for his first-career hit to score the run and balloon the lead to 11-0.
King had a runner in scoring position in five innings with its best chance to score coming in the sixth with runners at second and third base with one out. On a fly out to right, Renwick tagged to score but was thrown out at the plate on a seed from Jackson.
Zachary Thomas was the lone Tornado with a multi-hit day going 2-for-3 with a pair of singles as the club managed only six hits on the afternoon. Joey Bigelow took the loss firing three innings giving up four hits, two runs and one earned run.
The Eagles will host their first weekend of the series of the year this weekend when Charleston comes to town for a three-game series starting on Friday at 2 p.m. All of the games will air with audio and video streams available on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live.
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