C-N Game Notes (PDF)

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A ranked showdown is set in Mossy Creek as No. 25 Carson-Newman (14-4) welcomes No. 6 Florida Southern (15-2) to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for a three-game series starting Friday at 2:00 p.m.

Carson-Newman will face a ranked team for the first time this season. The last time the Eagles faced off in a weekend series with a ranked team, was in 2023 when it took two out of three games versus #15 Lenoir-Rhyne. Tom Griffin's group is set to host a top ten squad at home for the first time since 2022 when it played host to No. 1 Wingate.

Overall, C-N is 34-68 under Griffin when facing ranked ball clubs and has won 21 of those games at home. Three of those ranked victories came in 2023. As a Division II program, the Orange and Blue have a 47-99-1 record against the top 25.

The Eagles are a ranked team for the second straight week, after not being ranked in the NCBWA top 25 the past six seasons.

Carson-Newman stays home where it has been good this season. It got off to its best home start in program history, winning its first 10 games of the season at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. With an 11-1 record at home this season, C-N has outscored its opponents 116-40. The Eagles have scored double-digit runs in five of the 11 home wins this season.

Crooked numbers have been a major theme of this year's 14-4 start to the season. Carson-Newman has scored four runs or more an inning on 19 different occasions and has impressively not allowed its opponent to score four or more times in any single inning this season. To put this into perspective, C-N only did this 17 times all of a last season in 50 games.

Carson-Newman and Florida Southern have seven all-time meetings, with the Mocs winning five of them. It has been 20 years since these two teams last met, for a series that dates back to to 1999. The one and only series between the two teams was in Lakeland and the Mocs won all three contests, but two of them by three runs or less. Interestingly enough, C-N and FSC played to a 5-5 tie back on Feb 12, 2004. Carson-Newman's only win in the series came in the first ever meeting, a 4-3 win in 11 innings on May 14th, 1999 in the second round of the NCAA South Regional tournament.

Trey Miller has been on a tear in 2025. He leads the Eagles with a .462 batting average and has a team-high 24 hits. After just 8 RBI last season, he already has 21 this season including 5 games with multiple runs batted in.

The Eagles are 6-2 in non-conference contests this season, but have lost back to back games out of league. C-N has a sweep of King, two wins over Charleston and another non-conference win over Trevecca Nazarene.

Florida Southern ranks sixth in the NCBWA poll thanks to a six-game winning streak, the ninth-longest active streak in DII. The Mocs are 15-2 this season and have won 14 of their last 15 contests. Their only losses of the season are to #14 West Florida 10-7 and 2-0 against Florida Tech. The 15-2 start this season is the best start since the program started 17-2 in 2018.

During the six-game winning streak, the Mocs are hitting .379 including a .429 effort at the plate in a sweep of Barry last weekend. FSC has collected 10 or more hits in six straight games and 10 in its last 12 contests.

Rick O'Dette's team has been one of the elite baserunning teams in the country. The Mocs lead the country in steals with 79 through 17 games. It's the most stolen bases since the 2005 national championship squad swiped 90.

FSC's .333 batting average is tops in the Sunshine State Conference and is 14th best nationally. Four different Mocs are hitting above .400 at the plate, led by Rohsean Riley's .483 batting average in 16 starts. He carries a 12-game hitting streak into this series and has three triples over his last five games. Noah Rabin is also on a 12-game hitting streak and has 11 hits over his last four games.

First pitch on Friday is set for 3:00 p.m. The 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.