JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Continuing a seven-game homestand to open the 2024 season, Carson-Newman (3-0) welcomes Shorter (3-0) to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a 1:00 p.m. midweek matchup.
Carson-Newman will look to end a seven-game skid against the Hawks tomorrow afternoon. After C-N won six of the first seven meetings, Shorter has rattled off seven straight in the series. The last Eagles victory over the Hawks was on Feb. 13, 2018, a 6-5 home victory. Despite the recent skid against Shorter, all the contests have been decided by four runs or less. In last season's meeting in Mossy Creek, Shorter left with a 14-10 win. C-N scored the first four runs of the game, all in the first inning but Shorter responded by scoring six runs over the next three innings to grab a 6-4 lead. A three-run home run in the 7th inning broke the game open at 11-5.
Quality pitching on opening weekend helped Carson-Newman to a sweep of King to start 2024. The Eagles' pitching staff was electric all weekend, allowing just six runs over the 25 innings played. A reason for the success was C-N's pitching when runners were on base. It held King to just a .180 average with guys aboard. The Eagles struck out 10 batters or more in two of the three games in the series, something it only did in a series once all of last season.
The bullpen threw 16 2/3 of those innings and allowed just one run, sporting a 0.57 ERA for the weekend. Nine different arms out of the pen combined to strike out 22 King hitters, allowing just nine hits and seven walks.
After scoring just seven runs on eight hits in the first two games of the season, Carson-Newman's offense came to life in the series finale against the Tornado. C-N recorded 14 hits to score 13 runs in a 10-run victory to cap off an opening weekend sweep. All 13 runs were unanswered runs after King scored the first three of the game. Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) became the first player since Zach Boze in 2022 to have four hits in a game, a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) joined McLain, both having four RBI days in the win. Five Eagle hitters had multi-hit days at the dish.
Since 2015, Carson-Newman is 83-54 in the month of February and has won eight of its last nine home games in the month as well. In midweek affairs, C-N was 5-8 last season.
The Hawks began opening weekend with a home sweep over Miles College. Shorter won the opener 13-7, the first of a doubleheader 4-0, and then had to walk it off in the eighth inning to win 8-7 in the series finale.
The same nine hitters started all three games for Shorter in its opening series. Jacob Pajer had eight hits and drove in seven runs including a home run to lead the offensive attack. Kobe Jones had five hits and four RBI and homered. Four other Hawks had multiple hits for the weekend and three had two or more runs driven in as well.
Shorter's staff allowed 12 earned runs over the weekend, sporting a 4.15 ERA. The bullpen managed to allow just two runs in eight innings of work.
The Hawks were picked to finish eighth in the Gulf South Conference preseason poll, after finishing 28-22 in 2023. Shorter was recorded five consecutive winning seasons. Wes Timmons' team went 14-12 on the road in 2023.
Tuesday'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.
