ANDERSON, S.C. – Having won four of its first five South Atlantic Conference series for the year, Carson-Newman plays two on Monday at Anderson starting at 2 p.m. aiming to keep pace with the top of the league.
"We are going to come out with instruction to teach," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "I don't care how many games are left. It does not matter. You still have to perform. We have to get them ready for life. When you are an employee, what kind of employee will you be? Are you going to finish? We have to get better in our instruction. You finish through the finish line full speed."
The Eagles are 32-15 against the league in April over the past five years winning eight of the last 10 series dating back to 2019. Splitting a doubleheader at Newberry in 2021, the Orange and Blue have won five straight road SAC series in April since losing a pair at Mars Hill on April 22, 2017.
Carson-Newman (19-16, 11-4) and Anderson (17-20, 6-9) have met 43 times since the 2001 campaign with the Eagles leading 32-11 including an 18-7 mark on the road. Griffin's group has won 14 of the last 20 and each of the last six series since the Trojans took two out of three on their home field in 2014. There has been only one sweep over that stretch coming in 2018 at Mossy Creek.
Last year, the teams met in the Palmetto State at the end of April with C-N dropping the first game 7-6 before bouncing back to take the series 8-6 and 2-1. Despite fanning 11 batters, the Eagles' hurlers allowed nine earned runs over 24 innings. The Eagles trailed 5-0 in the first game through six innings before scoring six in the seventh while tallying three hits in the second game to win by a run.
Projected to finish seventh in the preseason poll, the Trojans enter this weekend tied with Lincoln Memorial for seventh and are 1.5 games ahead of Mars Hill for the final spot in the league tournament. The club has won two league series this year sweeping Coker and taking two of three against LMU in mid-March.
Coach P.J. Zocchi's group has lost six straight games since beating UVA Wise on March 25. Over that period, the group is being outscored 55-27. The unit has played just one of its last nine games at home where it is 10-11. The team is significantly more potent at the plate on the road hitting .346 with 10 of the team's 13 homers versus a .261 clip at Anderson. However the team's ERA is better than two runs fewer at Spero Financial Field having yielded seven of the 24 long balls.
The Trojans rank fourth in the conference with a .300 batting average but are eighth in the conference in scoring with six runs per game. Justin Fox has 21 of the team's 44 stolen bases being caught stealing twice with at least one steal in nine of the last 13 games with 12 total steals over that period.
Carlos Hernandez is one of the top run-producers in the league ranking seventh with 36 RBIs for the year while being the ninth-toughest to fan striking out once in every 11 at bats. He had a 14-game hitting streak earlier in the season and has eight multi-RBI efforts. In his last 21 games, he is hitting .380 with 25 RBIs.
Errors have plagued the team this year with 15 games of at least two including committing 16 over a three-game period at the end of March. The group ranks 10th in the league with a .953 fielding percentage but it has turned 27 double plays to rank 18th in the country.
On the bump, the hurlers rank 11th in the conference with seven punch outs per nine innings and eighth in team ERA giving up double-digit runs 10 times. Yielding 21 homers in the last 21 games, Anderson has given up 18 homers in league action, the third-most in the conference.
Nathan Sanders is 11th in the league in ERA posting a 3.60 clip but that number rises to 5.64 against SAC competition. Last week against Catawba, he gave up five earned runs over 4 2/2 innings and has only last six innings or more twice in nine starts. After not allowing a dinger in his first 20 1/3 innings, he has given up four in his last four outings.
Follow @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates from the Palmetto State for the series.
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