NEWBERRY, S.C. – Kicking off the 2023 South Atlantic Conference Tournament, fourth-seeded Carson-Newman takes on fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne on Friday at 3 p.m. from the Smith Road Complex on the campus of Newberry.
Carson-Newman (24-21) 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 57-49 record in the league tournament with this season being the first time since 2015 that the postseason is not played in full at Smokies Stadium. The program is 16-9 in tournament games held in South Carolina playing in the Palmetto State for the first time since 2007, the last time the Eagles hoisted the trophy winning five games including three on the final day.
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. The Eagles are aiming to win the title as the No. 4 seed after the Bears did so in 2022.
Friday will be the ninth meeting between the two programs in the history of the league tournament with each side winning four times. The last time the teams met was April 21, 2005 at Tusculum with the Eagles winning 9-5 in the first game. C-N fell behind 5-0 in the fourth before erupting for the game's final nine runs including a five-run seventh. Chris Gilles hurled four scoreless innings of relief and Steve Cishek recorded the final five outs while Nathan Gravely posted four hits and two RBIs from the lead-off slot.
Overall the two programs have faced off 102 times with the Eagles holding a 65-37 advantage including a 33-13 mark under coach Tom Griffin. The teams met two weeks ago with the Bears cruising to a 12-4 win in the opener before the Eagles took the final two games by a run. It was the club's first series win over a top 25 team in five years.
Carson-Newman was powered by timely hitting in the series going 12-for-35, .343, with runners in scoring position despite just three hits with two outs. L-R saw 16 of 25, .640, of its lead-off hitters reach safely but went 18-for-71, .254, with runners on base and 13-for-44, .295, with men in scoring position.
Entering the series at Mossy Creek, coach Chris Ramirez's team controlled its own destiny for a regular-season championship but dropped its final five SAC contests of the year being swept at Newberry by a 23-11 tally in the series to fall into the fifth slot. In the two midweek games over that period, the group outscored foes 30-7 beating Limestone and Belmont Abbey.
The Bears are aiming to repeat as tournament champions for the second time in its history doing so in 2000 and 2001. Overall it's happened five times, most recently by Lincoln Memorial in 2017 and 2018. Entering last year's postseason, the program was 3-18 since its last championship before rattling off four wins to take home the trophy a year ago.
With 81 homers for the year, the unit ranks fifth in the country in the area with four players blasting double figures and 14 different players hitting at least one. Tyler McPeak (18) and Blake Bean (17) are the top two hitters in the league in the area ranking in the top eight of the country. The group has homered at least once in nine of the last 10 games with 19 total over that period. For reference, the team finished with 31 more homers than the next-closest team in the league blasting 31 in April that would rank above six teams in the league for the entire season.
Lenoir-Rhyne led the conference this season with a 3.88 team ERA fanning 10.7 batters per nine innings, the fifth-best tally nationally. Andrew Patrick leads the way with a 3.39 ERA for the year striking out 83 in 63 2/3 innings. Despite fanning 10 in two of his last three games, he has allowed at least four runs in each and gave up seven on 13 hits last week at Newberry.
The game will be broadcast on FloSports with a paid subscription with updates available on @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram.
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