JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Behind excellent pitching all day long, Carson-Newman (2-0) swept King (0-2) in a doubleheader to kick off the 2024 season Saturday at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"It was all about our pitching," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Pridmore didn't have his best stuff, but he still battled and got through it and that's the sign of good pitching. Sometimes you just have to compete and I thought he did a great job. Hunter Harritan was big-time today with two solid innings and then Jake Wright closed it. That was a phenomenal job in game one because we were awful defensively. Game two, I thought Blake Cooper in his first start here for us was good. I thought him and Nick were in a really good rhythm and then Grif Hughes in relief was solid. That was a great outing to put up some zeroes right there. Tomorrow, we get another day to improve."
Since Carson-Newman joined Division II in 1994, the Eagles are now 27-4 in home openers including 17-2 under Griffin since he took over in 2006. The Eagles have won 12 straight home openers
Game One: Carson-Newman 3, King 1
Both teams threatened to score in the opening inning. King recorded a pair of singles, but left runners on the corners to end the top half of the inning. Despite not recording a hit in the bottom half of the inning, C-N loaded the bases on a hit by pitch, and a pair of walks but stranded men at each base to start the contest.
In the bottom of the second, another walk and hit by pitch, put two runners aboard for Trey Miller (Rocky Point, N.Y.) who delivered driving in Carson-Newman's first run of the season with a double to left field to score Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.).
King answered in the top of the third on a Michael Starrs single to left, which was all set up by a pair of errors to start the inning. Carson-Newman got that run back in the bottom of the inning. A pair of walks set the table for Williams who knocked a double into the left center field gap to put C-N back in front.
The Eagles scored for a third consecutive inning when James Denten (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) went yard with two outs to extend the lead to 3-1 after four frames.
Noah Pridmore got the ball in game one and finished his 74-pitch outing with a 1-2-3 fifth inning. The senior right-hander earned the win by throwing five innings, allowing zero earned runs and striking out three King hitters.
Pridmore turned it over to his bullpen to finish the game and got four scoreless inning from relievers Hunter Harritan and Jake Wright. Harritan threw 2 1/3 innings but allowed a pair of runners to reach in the 8th inning with just one out. Wright came in and struck out Huffman and Nuno to keep C-N ahead by 2 runs heading to the ninth. The senior right-hander struck out a pair of batters in the ninth to close C-N's first victory of the season.
Carson-Newman was able to overcome its four errors and just four hits for the 3-1 win.
Game Two: Carson-Newman 4, King 2
After two scoreless innings to start game two, King broke the scoreless game with a third inning Starrs home run to center field.
Carson-Newman got the run back as Denten drove in Dalton McLain on a single into right center field to level the game.
Both teams managed base runners in the fourth, but those were left stranded. After a one-out double to begin the fifth, Chad Evans delivered with a two-out single to left field and King regained a 2-1 lead. A pair of walks extended the frame, but Grif Hughes (Knoxville, Tenn.) came in and got Nick Valentin to strike out looking to end the inning.
The Eagles, once again, responded in the bottom of the frame. Aiden Gibson singled and McLain walked to put runners at first and second with no one out. Miller placed a sacrifice bunt down to move the runners over. Denten tied the game, despite grounding out to second and scored McLain from third.
Hughes threw a clean sixth inning after allowing a leadoff single. C-N created two-out magic in the bottom of the inning. Freshman Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) reached on balls, pinch0hitter Luke Goforth was hit by a pitch. Those two advanced on a wild pitch and then were joined on the bases after Gibson was hit by a 3-2 pitch. On a 2-2 pitch, McLain popped a ball up into the infield, where the shortstop Starrs dropped the ball, and two C-N runners came around to score the go-ahead runs.
Hughes threw a 1-2-3 seventh inning to secure his first win of the year and a sweep of the doubleheader. The left-hander got the final seven outs of the game, allowing just one hit and striking out three King hitters.
Blake Cooper got the game two start, throwing four innings of one run baseball, allowing just two hits and striking out three hitters.
Carson-Newman pitching only allowed three runs in the 16 innings and just eleven hits. Between the two starting pitchers Pridmore and Cooper, the duo threw nine innings and allowed just one earned run.
The C-N bullpen threw seven innings of one-run baseball, headlined by Harritan and Hughes who both went 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
C-N was held to eight hits over the two games with Williams recording three of them. Denten drove in three of the six runs scored for C-N.
The three-game series wraps up tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. The game will air with a video stream available on FloSports with a subscription, while a free audio stream will be available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
