JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In a midweek clash of Volunteer State programs, Carson-Newman returns to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a 3 p.m. first pitch against Trevecca Nazarene.
The Eagles have improved significantly defensively committing seven errors in the last 13 games with eight affairs without one over that stretch. By comparison, the group committed 20 in the first 14 outings of the campaign with only one errorless contest through Feb. 25. The recent stretch has catapulted the club into second in the league and No. 29 in the country with a .972 fielding percentage.
Carson-Newman (14-13) and Trevecca Nazarene (8-10) are squaring off for the seventh time with the Eagles holding a 4-2 edge in the series with wins in each of the last two by scores of 13-3 and 15-5. The last meeting came on April 16, 2019 with the Eagles cranking three homers and were hit by eight pitches to win a sixth in a row while snapping the Trojans' 13-game road winning streak.
Each of the last five meetings have been played in April with the lone contest played in March coming in the first meeting on March 5, 2014, a 3-1 loss in Nashville. C-N stranded the bases loaded twice and left 10 total runners on the base paths. The Orange and Blue tied the score at one in the fourth before allowing a run in the bottom of the inning and the fifth despite outhitting the club 9-8.
Trevecca has four straight winning seasons since going 22-23 in 2017 including a 73-28 mark entering the year in two years under coach Chase Sain. The 10th coach in school history was the lead assistant under eight-year veteran Ryan Schmalz taking over in 2021. Prior to his time in Nashville, he was an assistant at Tennessee in 2017 and for two years at Middle Tennessee State. Sain played at Memphis.
In his first season at the helm in 2021, the Trojans went 36-13 winning the Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles. The group lost one time in the Midwest Regional avenging a loss to Davenport winning 11-9 to advance to the school's first Division II World Series before falling 7-6 to Tampa and 9-3 to Northwest Nazarene.
Last year, the team opened the year as a top 10 team and were ranked in the NCBWA top 10 for the first 10 polls going 37-15 overall finishing second in the league with a 22-10 mark. The group walloped 86 home runs, a conference record with four players blasting at least 10 and Braden Odom (23) and Roland Ryan (21) each cranking 20 or more. However the team lost both outings in the league tournament.
Entering 2023, the Trojans were selected as the preseason favorites in the GMAC having won six reguar-season title and four tournament crowns. Sain needed to replace a dozen players including Odom, the GMAC Player of the Year, bringing in eight transfers and nine rookies.
To open the year, Trevecca lost each of its first seven games of the year but is 8-3 since Feb. 23 and had won five in a row before falling 10-1 to Hillsdale in the series finale five days ago. The group is 1-4 on the road with the lone victory coming on March 14, 10-5 at Union.
After last year's power explosion, this year the team has 10 homers with four over the past three outings. Josh Griffin, a Volunteer State Community College transfer, paces the unit with four homers and 17 RBIs with seven multi-hit games and five multi-RBI efforts.
On the mound, the team has surrendered 17 homers giving up multiple four times this year. The team throws strikes giving up 3.62 walks per nine innings, the 29th-best margin in the country having walked no more than six – coming in the first game of 2023.
Wednesday's game will air on the Eagle Sports Network with video available on FloSports with a paid subscription and an audio-only stream on cneagles.com/live.
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