JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Finishing off a seven-game home stand to begin the season, Carson-Newman (3-1) welcomes Shippensburg (0-0) to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a three-game weekend series.
Tomorrow's opening game of the series was originally scheduled for one game at 2:00 p.m. and has now been announced as a doubleheader starting tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. The second game will follow roughly 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
This weekend's series will be the first meeting between these two programs and the third time Carson-Newman squares off with a team from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The Eagles faced California (Pa) in Washington, PA last season and snagged one of the three games in the series. Prior to last season's meeting with California (PA), C-N faced Bloomsburg and went 4-1 in games played in 2007 and 2011.
Outside of Carson-Newman's 13 run eruption in the series finale against King, the offense has produced just 9 runs on 12 hits in the 25 other innings played this season. Through four contests, C-N has a team batting average of .224. James Denten (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) and Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) each have a team-high five hits and the two have combined to drive in nine runs as well.
The pitching staff has delivered quality efforts early in the season. The staff has a 2.65 ERA and is averaging a strikeout per inning so far this season. Eight different pitchers have produced scoreless outings early in the year. C-N has pitched well when runners are on base, holding its opponents to a .229 average when guys are on the base paths.
Dating back to the 2022 season, Carson-Newman has won six straight home series. Its last home series loss came at the hands of Lenoir-Rhyne in April of 2022. Since 2015, Carson-Newman is 83-55 in the month of February and has won eight of its last ten home games in the month as well.
Shippensburg opens up their season in Mossy Creek after posting a 27-25 record in 2023, qualifying for the PSAC Tournament and the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament. SU returns 21 players from last year's squad, including all eight starting position players, and welcomes a strong class of nine newcomers. The Raiders were picked to finish fourth in the PSAC's Eastern Division. It's a division that features the top four teams that are all included in the National College Baseball Writers Association Atlantic Region Preseason top ten.
The Raiders are under the direction of Matt Jones, who is in his 18th season. He has a 424-412-1 record with the Raiders. He has led Shippensburg to fifteen 20 plus win seasons including two trips to the NCAA DII College World Series after winning the Atlantic Region in both the 2008 and 2013 seasons. Its Jones' 25th season as a head coach after seven seasons with DIII Elizabethtown. He has 572 career wins. Between Jones and C-N head coach Tom Griffin, the two combine for 1,260 victories in a combined 51 years of head coaching experience.
Mike Heckman and Justin Byler return after both hit above .300 in 2023. Both were 1 and 2 in hits for the Raiders last season. Byler led the team with 15 doubles and while Heckman paced the strong offense with a .347 batting average. Austin Baal is the team's top slugger after hitting a team-high 11 home runs and driving in 47 runs last season.
While only player had an ERA below 4.00 last season, that player returns in Gabe Stotler. The right-hander was 3-1 in eight appearances throwing 31 1/3 innings, including a complete game against Slippery Rock on Feb 25, 2023. The Raiders team ERA was 6.21 last season, 12th in the PSAC.
The defense helped the pitching often, recording the second most double plays in the conference with 37. The team's fielding percentage was .968 in 2023.
A reminder that Friday's first pitch for the twinbill is now 11:00 a.m. with Saturday's series finale time yet to be decided. The weekend series 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.
