VIDEO: Dalton McLain Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Scoring 13 unanswered runs on 14 hits, Carson-Newman (3-0) completed a three-game sweep of King (0-3) on Sunday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex, winning 13-3.
The Eagles have started a season 3-0 for the second time in three years. C-N has won six straight home series' since the start of the 2023 season.
"Hitting is very difficult to do," Carson-Newman head baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "Fortunately, today Dalton McLain really got things going for us at the top of the order. I think we had some good timely hits. A young man playing his first collegiate game Logan Floyd, who has a lot of potential and had a really good day. We were hitting the ball hard all day and that is all you can ask for once it leaves the bat."
Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) led Carson-Newman's offense in the 14-hit effort. The senior had two singles, a double and a triple part of a four-hit afternoon, while also driving in four runs. His first career four hit and four rbi games.
"The approaches at the plate yesterday wanted me to focus in more today," McLain said. "Yesterday we all swung at some bad pitches. I took a better approaching by approaching the plate with a two-strike mindset each time out and it worked out."
Four others stepped and recorded two-hits days for the Carson-Newman offense as well. Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) drove in four runs on two hits, including his third inning home run that tied the game. James Denton (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) reached all four times and drove in a run. Logan Floyd (Adairsville, GA) and Will Gibbs (Harrisburg, Ill.) each had two hits as well. Floyd recorded his first career RBI on his first career hit.
On just the second pitch of the game, Josh Nuno ripped a pitch to right center for a leadoff home run. A pair of walks followed and then Nathan Borchardt singled to right field to plate another run to make it 2-0. Misael Garcia followed with another single to right to score another and make it 3-0. Brock Culpepper (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) entered the game out of the bullpen and helped limit the damage in the top of the first. The right-hander struck out the final two hitters of the inning to escape the jam.
Carson-Newman got a run back in the bottom half of the first, Travis singled to left center field to score McLain and trim the deficit to 3-1 after one.
After back-to-back scoreless innings from Culpepper, Carson-Newman threatened to add runs in the 3rd. Denten drew a two-out walk and Travis followed in a big way, launching his first home run of the season to tie the game at 3.
That was the hit that sparked the Eagles offense. After the first two runners reached, McLain laced a ball down the right field line for a two-rbi triple to give C-N in its first lead of the game. Griffin's group never looked back. After Trey Miller walked and stole second, Denten grounded a ball softly back to the mound that allowed McLain to hustle home from third to make it 6-3. With two outs in the inning, Nicholas Castellana doubled down the left field line and plated two more runs to make it 8-3. Next batter Logan Floyd roped his first career hit to left field to score Castellana and make it a 6-run fourth inning for C-N to lead 9-3.
Carson-Newman continued to add on as the bullpen continued to dominate on the mound. McLain continued his stellar day at the plate, doubling to left field to score Gibbs from second and make it 10-3. The next two hitters reached, and Travis recorded his fourth RBI of the game to extend the lead to eight.
After a second straight 1-2-3 inning from the pen, C-N scored two more runs for a fourth consecutive inning. Borchardt threw the ball into center field with Gibbs stealing the second, which allowed Floyd to score after his leadoff double. McLain ended his excellent day at the dish with an RBI single to right and the Eagles led 13-3 after six innings.
The Eagles bullpen continued their excellent work over the final three frames. C-N struck out the final seven King hitters to finish off a dominant performance in the series finale. Ethan Patch (Whitehall, N.Y.), Nolan Rogers (Dandridge, Tenn.) and Sam Astern threw the final three innings, allowing just one hit and one walk and striking out eight. After starting pitcher Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) was forced out of the game, recording just one out C-N pitching helped put eight consecutive zeros on the board in the 13-3 home win. Culpepper got the win going 3 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and striking out two hitters.
"He (Culpepper) came in and put up some zeroes and had quick innings," Griffin said. "Guys know that it is a long game. Three runs in the first inning, we knew the game wasn't over. The good thing is that Culpepper came in and got us out of that and gave us great innings and then he passed it along to the other guys in the pen who did a phenomenal job.
King starting pitcher Miguel Rosado allowed six runs on six hits, taking the loss after 3 1/3 innings. Michael Starrs had two of King's seven hits in the game.
Carson-Newman gets one day off before returning to the diamond on Tuesday afternoon for a 2:00 p.m. matchup with Shorter. 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.
