JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (7-0) opens its 2025 South Atlantic Conference schedule with a three-game series versus Emory & Henry, starting with a twin-bill on Friday at noon, followed by the series finale Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
Carson-Newman has matched the program's best start in its modern history (since 1990) starting 2025 with a 7-0 record. Six of those seven wins are at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. It ties the second-best home start to a regular season since 1990. The best home start to a season was in 1993 when C-N won its first nine home games that season.
The Eagles are the only unbeaten team left in the SAC, one of just three unbeaten Southeast region teams and seven among DII baseball teams that have started their seasons.
Through seven games, C-N is outscoring its opponents 79-22. An early theme for the Eagles has been scoring early and often. They almost have more first inning runs (21) than runs allowed (22) in seven games. C-N has a 39-4 advantage in the first two innings of games this season.
Two weeks into the baseball season, Carson-Newman has one of the best offensive teams in DII. Griffin's group is number one in the country in on-base percentage at .510. Nationally, the Eagles rank second in doubles (24), third in team batting average (.366), eighth in walks (50), and averaging the eighth most runs per game at 11.3 in seven contests.
Seven different hitters have at least five RBI this season and nine different hitters with at least 13 at bats are hitting above .300. Tanner Kilgore leads the way with his team-best three home runs and 13 RBI.
Nicholas Castellana (Lancaster, N.Y.) and Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) each are tied with a team-high ten hits. 79 runs in the first seven games of a season is the most runs scored at the start of a season since 1990.
Carson-Newman has won seven of its last 11 SAC openers. Overall, the program 19-14 in the first conference contest of the year going 19-12-2 in the opening series. The Eagles have won their first conference and first home conference series each of the past two seasons, doing so against E&H in 2023 and Newberry this past season.
Emory & Henry was picked to finish last in the South Atlantic Conference's preseason coaches' poll after finishing the 2024 season with an 11-38 overall record. To start 2025, E&H defeated Anderson in a non-conference game 10-4 in the season opener but has since dropped five consecutive games. The last four losses during this losing streak have all been by three runs or less.
Only one Wasp was named to a preseason all-conference team in third baseman Jared Foley. He has just three hits in his first 19 at bats this season. Through six games, Steven Smith has a team-high eleven hits. Jacob Bebber is the top run producing for the Wasps offense. He has one of the team's two home runs and has 13 of the team's 22 runs batted in.
Starting pitcher Jacob Nester has pitched 11.1 innings in his first two starts of 2025. He has six strikeouts and has a 3.97 ERA. Jack Swarbrick is the team's top reliever, with no earned runs through his first 4.2 innings of the year and leads the team with seven strikeouts.
As a team, E&H has a 6.11 earned run average and is hitting .249. Dating back to last season, E&H has lost nine of its last ten road games.
All games will air with a video stream available on FloSports with a subscription. There will also be a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
