C-N Game Notes (PDF)

YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. – Carson-Newman (12-2) completes a five-game road stretch when it visits Young Harris (10-4) on Wednesday afternoon at Zell B. Miller Field at 3:00 p.m.

"No matter what part of the season it is you are always trying to make improvements," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Even if there was one series left to play, there is still things to work on and get better at. That is the thing we want them to understand in life. It doesn't matter if you are 25, 55 or 75, you want to try and get better everyday and be a constant learner.

The Eagles are 7-1 in non-conference contests this season, with the lone loss coming last Tuesday at Lee. C-N went 2-0 in midweek contests played on Wednesday last season.

Carson-Newman is coming off a pair of road wins over the weekend in conference play. C-N battled to take two of three from Newberry, winning 14-6 and 3-2 in the Saturday doubleheader with the Wolves. The Eagles are 3-2 on the road this season and 1-1 in non-conference road games.

C-N will try to win its third straight road game, something it has achieved three times over the past four seasons. The last three-game road winning streak came in March of last season, winning the series finale at UVA Wise and the first two games at Emory & Henry.

Tom Griffin's team has thrived on big innings offensively and limiting its opponents to big innings. Through 14 games, Carson-Newman has 13 different occasions in which it has scored four runs or more in an inning. To put this in perspective, C-N only did this 17 times in 50 games last season. On the flipside, the Eagles have yet to allow their opponent to score four times in one inning this season.

Carson-Newman is winless in ten all-time meetings with Young Harris. In a series that started 12 years ago, C-N has lost five times at home and on the road with half of the losses being by three runs or less.

In a quality Conference Carolinas, Young Harris was selected to finish tied for third in the preseason coaches' poll. The Mountain Lions are coming off a 2024 season that concluded in the regional tournament and finished the year with an impressive 41-15 mark.

The Mountain Lions have started this season 10-4 and have the same league mark as C-N at 5-1. Their only league loss came last time out, a 4-2 loss at Erskine in the final game of the weekend series. The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak. During the streak, YHC outscored its opponents 61-23 and held their opponents to one-run or less three times.

Young Harris has several key players back for this year's team led by Jeremy Begora and Jack Enrico. Both were named DII Baseball Preseason All-Americans after both batters hit above .350 and hit double-digit home runs last season. Begora leads this year's team in home runs with six in 14 games, the most long balls from any hitter in the region to start the season.

Kade Smallwood has the hottest bat in the YHC lineup. He leads the team with his .375 batting average and 19 RBI. In the second week of the year, the sophomore designated hitter hit an impressive .529 at the plate, launching three home runs, driving in 10 and scoring five times over the four-game weekend. His impressive efforts earned him Conference Carolinas and NCBWA Southeast Region Player of the week.

First pitch on Wednesday is set for 3:00 p.m. There will be a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.