JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Opening South Atlantic Conference action with the toughest challenge, Carson-Newman welcomes the reigning National Champions and top-ranked Wingate for a three-game set starting with a twin-bill on Saturday at noon concluding the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.
"We have challenges out the wazoo with this group," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We know how good they are. It's a talented, confident group. All we know is that we have to do what we do good. We have to take care of the baseball. We have to dominate the strike zone as pitchers and be competitive in the strike zone. Our hitters have to make good decisions. We have to win the freebie war. Hopefully it's better than them that day."
Carson-Newman (10-3) is hosting the reigning national titleholders and No. 1 team in the nation for the second time in the last three years taking one of three against Tampa in 2020. The Eagles are 2-2 against the top-ranked club in the country beating No. 1 Florida Southern in the 1999 South Regional, 4-3 in 11 innings.
Under coach Griffin, the Eagles hold a 30-55 overall record against nationally-ranked teams with 18 of those victories coming inside of the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. The Eagles are 4-7 against the top five in that time. In terms of playing series, the highest ranked club the team has won a series against is No. 14 Northwood winning two of three against the Timberwolves on Feb. 18-19, 2018. In series against teams ranked higher, the club is 0-7-4 in that time.
Carson-Newman has won seven of its last nine SAC openers. Overall, the program 19-12 in the first conference contest of the year going 18-11-2 in the opening series. In five of the last 10 seasons, the Eagles have begun the year with a sweep going 9-3 in series sweeps over the first 28 years as a member of the league.
The Eagles have faced off with the Bulldogs 101 times trailing the all-time series 56-45 and 21-18 at Mossy Creek. C-N's dropped two straight series with its last series victory coming in the last time Wingate (11-1) came to Jefferson City on April 14-15, 2017, an Eagle sweep.
In the series the Bulldogs have been nationally-ranked in 10 games with the club winning nine times. The only outlier came on March 30, 2018, a 7-4 win over the No. 24 team on a Friday night behind 10 punch outs by Dillon Cate over seven innings and Jordan Griffin (Ellerslie, Ga.) going 3-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Wingate's highest ranking in a series against the Eagles came on March 25-26, 1995 when the 'Dogs swept the Eagles in three tight contest ranked third.
In 2021, the Eagles won one of the six meetings taking the first meeting between the teams in the SAC Tournament. In the six outings, C-N hit .255 as a team and struck out 42 times drawing just five walks. Conversely, the Eagles pitching staff walked 25 batters and surrendered 13 long balls.
Last season coach Jeff Gregory's club won the second team national title in Wingate history (2016 men's soccer) in the seventh NCAA Tournament trip and became the first Southeast Region to hoist the trophy since Mount Olive in 2008. Between the SAC Tournament and College World Series, the Bulldogs won eight elimination games after racing through a regional where they outscored teams 40-17.
After losing the first game of the College World Series, the Bulldogs won the next five games by a total of eight runs with three coming by one run. They became the fourth team in history to take home the hardware after losing the first contest and first since Florida Southern in 2005.
After losing to Erksine on Tuesday, the team saw its 16-game winning streak come to an end as the unit has won 46 of its last 55 since dropping back-to-back affairs, a string of four straight setbacks to Queens and Newberry from Feb. 21-28, 2021.
In a young season, the team's depth has been showcased leading the conference with 11 runs per game reaching base at a .457 clip as a team at the plate while producing a 3.50 ERA and nearly a dozen strikeouts per nine innings on the rubber.
Wingate has clubbed homers in 10 of the 12 games with five multi-homer games as 10 different players have launched long balls. Michael Dansky is the overall leader at the dish posting a .468 batting average with two homers, 12 RBIs and nine doubles with six multi-hit games on the year.
On the mound, the pitching staff has fanned double digits in eight times with two outings of at 18. Brody McCullough has struck out a ridiculous 24 batters in 10 innings coming off of 13 against Charleston on Feb. 11. The right-hander has given up 12 hits and five walks.
All three games this weekend will air on the Eagle Sports Network with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live.
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