January 21, 2025

SAC predicts seventh-place finish for C-N

Carson-Newman was picked to finish seventh in the South Atlantic Conference preseason coaches’ poll released by the league office on Tuesday morning.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman was picked to finish seventh in the South Atlantic Conference preseason coaches' poll released by the league office on Tuesday morning.

Carson-Newman is coming off a 24-26 overall record in 2024, winning 16 league games. C-N has won double-digit league games 14 out of the last 15 seasons.

"The only good thing about the poll is that we are getting ready for the start for another season," Carson-Newman baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "All of us are in this rush from January 10th on to get ready for the opener on Jan 31. Quickly, you are trying to get as many scrimmages in, get your pitchers live action, all of that. We had a scrimmage that went very well and many things were encouraging."

The Eagles were excellent in close games last season. Griffin's group was 16-4 in games decided by two runs or less. They also fared very well when limiting the opposing offense to four runs or fewer. C-N went 18-2 when the opponent scored four runs or less.

Among the four all-conference selections from this past season, Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga) is the only player that returns to this year's team. Being named to the third-team, Floyd became just the 10th third baseman to be named all-conference and the first since Brett Langhorne in 2018. As a freshman, he hit five home runs, all of which came from March 27th on. He led the team with a .356 batting average and had 16 multi-hit efforts including five games with three or more. Floyd had 11 multi-RBI games, driving in at least three in eight of those contests. Helping Carson-Newman win a series over Lenoir-Rhyne at the end of March, the rookie drove in a career-high five runs thanks to his fourth inning grand slam. Floyd only struck out 15 times in 163 at bats and was the 10th toughest hitter to strike out in the SAC.

Catawba, the reigning regular season champions, was picked to finish atop the league receiving 10 of the 13 first-place votes. Wingate and Lincoln Memorial rounded out the top three in that order. Coker, Lenoir-Rhyne and Newberry all received a first-place vote and were 4-6 in the poll ahead of C-N.

Tusculum was picked one spot behind C-N at number eight, with a big drop off in points between 8 and 9. Anderson is ninth and Limestone rounds out the top ten. The bottom three teams in the standings are Mars Hill, UVA Wise and Emory & Henry.

The 2025 slate begins in ten days on Jan 31, with Carson-Newman opening the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex, starting a three-game series with King. Every home game can be heard on cneagles.com/live with live video available on the Eagle Sports Network. Select road games will be available with an audio stream.