2022 SAC Baseball Championships Bracket
KODAK, Tenn. – Looking to make a deep run into the 2022 South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championships, seventh-seeded Carson-Newman takes on sixth-seeded Lincoln Memorial in the play-in round Thursday at 7:30 p.m. from Smokies Stadium.
The winner of the game will advance into the double elimination portion of the field with games starting on Friday with three straight days of tripleheaders. Depending how game one of the tournament turns out, the winner will play either top-seeded Wingate at 11 a.m. on Friday or second-seeded Newberry at 2:45 p.m.
Carson-Newman (27-22) has won four SAC Championships (1992, 1993, 1997 and 2007) since the tournament began in 1991. Catawba (8) and Wingate (7) are the only schools with more titles. Tusculum has also won four trophies.
The Eagles hold a 56-47 record in the league tournament that includes a 14-13 mark in games played in the Volunteer State. Prior to the 2016 season, the last time the championships were held in Tennessee came in 2006 in Greeneville. This year is the sixth straight campaign at Smokies Stadium where C-N is 12-13 overall and 10-9 in league championships.
The regular season champion has won the tournament title 13 times in 31 tries while a top four team has won all but two championships. Wingate was a five seed in 2015 and finished the SAC regular season with a 15-15 mark. In 2000, Lenoir-Rhyne was sixth in the regular season going 13-10 before marching to grab the hardware.
Coach Tom Griffin's group has been in the play-in round four times in the last five years with mixed results. Twice in that period the team reached the final day of competition with the Eagles beating Mars Hill as the No. 5 seed, 4-0, last year and was the final team without a loss. In 2017 as the No. 7 seed, the club marched all the way to championship Monday before falling shy to second-seeded Lincoln Memorial (27-17).
Thursday evening marks the sixth time the two clubs have met in the SAC Championships with LMU winning three of the first five including the last matchup coming on April 27, 2018 when C-N took a 2-1 lead into the sixth before giving up six runs in a 9-2 setback. The teams met in the championship round in 2013 and 2017 with Lincoln Memorial coming out on top in each try.
All told the teams have met 80 times with the Railsplitters holding a 41-39 edge with each team winning three times on a neutral playing surface. When the teams met this season, C-N dropped the first two before coming back in the final inning of the series finale. While the Eagles produced more hits, the club hit .244 with runners in scoring position and .207 with two outs compared to .360 and .400 marks by the 'Splitters.
Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) led the Eagles at the dish with six hits with Gunnar Ricketts (Hixson, Tenn.) driving in a team-high six runs. Kasten Harvey and Sam Mast carried the load at the plate for LMU going a combined 9-for-18 with three homers and six RBIs.
Despite losing its final two games of the year, the club from Harrogate went 14-5 down the stretch of the season that including wins over No. 7 Trevecca Nazarene and No. 20 Lenoir-Rhyne. The unit was more potent at home going 18-7 versus a 9-10 mark on the road. The pitching staff was fairly equal but the offense hit .261 on the road, 44 points lower, and mustered roughly a half of run per game less at six.
This season, Lincoln Memorial thrived in the field ranking second in the conference in fielding and third in earned run average, marks that put the team in the top 20 nationally. Hurlers fanned better than 10 batters per nine innings, good for 15th in the country. Foes scored five or fewer runs 25 times and struck out at least 10 times on 20 occasions.
Patrick Queener has been the team's ace logging at least five innings of work in every game but his first appearance of the year with a pair of double-digit strikeout performances including 14 over seven innings against Limestone on April 8. He has pitched against the Eagles three times in his career allowing nine runs over 15 innings with 19 strikeouts, 14 hits allowed and four walks.
At the plate, the team ranked eighth in the conference with 6.3 runs per game but ranked seventh in the country with 113 stolen bases as four players are in the top 10 in the conference in the area led by 21 by Cameron Bowen. The team has swiped at least one in 20 of the last 22 including two-plus 15 times. This year, C-N's opponents are 13-for-29 in attempts.
Ryan Kurth leads the team in batting average (.366) and home runs (eight) while producing a long in four of the last six games. He has four multi-hit games over his last 11 and is hitting .404 with five homers and 12 RBIs in April.
Thursday's affair will air on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live for the live video and audio streams or through the South Atlantic Conference app using your Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV. Ticket information can be found here with daily tickets and entire weekend packages available for purchase.
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