GREENWOOD, S.C. – Carson-Newman baseball placed left-handed pitcher Grif Hughes on the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (D2CCA) All-Southeast Region second team, as announced by the organization this afternoon.
Hughes' all-region honor is his second career honor, after earning academic all-district honors in 2023.
With fellow senior reliever Hunter Harritan named to the NCBWA all-region second team, C-N now has produced multiple all-region players for the first time since 2019. It's just the third time that the Eagles have produced multiple all-region pitchers in program history and the first since 2002. The previous two occasions in which this occurred was when Carson-Newman was in the South region.
The southpaw earns second team all-region honors after producing the best season of his career as a senior. He marked career highs in wins (9), innings pitched (58 1/3), strikeouts (71) and in earned run average (3.86). Carson-Newman won 14 of the 20 games Hughes pitched in this season.
Hughes was spectacular on multiple occasions that helped result in wins for his team. In his second appearance in conference play this season, Hughes threw 4 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts to help blank Newberry and earned his first win of the year. Into the final month of the season, Hughes had a stretch where he pitched 11 consecutive scoreless innings over the span of four appearances. In his final 23 innings of the season, the Knoxville native allowed just four earned runs, walked five and struck out 26. He threw multiple innings of scoreless baseball nine different times this season.
He saved his best for last in the postseason. His final career appearance was a tremendous one. Hughes pitched a career-long 6 1/3 innings, allowing just four hits and one unearned run while notching a career-high eight strikeouts to help Carson-Newman win its opening round game in the South Atlantic Conference tournament.
Hughes made 63 appearances in four seasons with the Eagles and posted a 15-6 record with three saves. He threw 120 innings and had a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio. His career ERA is 5.47 with a WHIP of 1.40.
Hughes is currently playing professional baseball in the Frontier League with the Evansville Otters. Fans can watch Hughes in action just like Carson-Newman sporting events, on Flo Sports with a subscription.
