Faithful, Eagles shut down King, 5-1

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's Evan Faithful struck out eight for his first career complete game as the Eagles beat King, 5-1, on Wednesday afternoon at the KC Baseball Complex.

With the win, the Eagles bounce back to .500 at 22-22 overall.

Faithful (WP, 1-2) opened the game with seven shutout innings as the Eagles built a 5-0 lead. The sophomore walked two and scattered eight hits in the win. The eight strikeouts and the complete game are career firsts for Hingham, Mass. native. He becomes only the second Eagle to pitch a nine-inning complete game this season. Robby Thigpen has the Eagles other two.

Faithful got all the offense he needed in the Eagles second trip through the order.

Catcher Mason Guymon delivered an RBI single in the third to plate the Eagles' first run, scoring Trace Rogers who drew a leadoff walk.

C-N's Lance Reed scored the second run on an RBI single by red-hot Lance Rorex in the fourth. Kyle Koeneman added a leadoff double in the inning as C-N threatened to break the game open, but King starter Chris Glenn got Rogers to fly out to end the threat.

The Eagles blew the game open in the fifth as Koeneman laced an RBi single to left to score Troy Zawadzki and build the lead to 3-0. Reed followed with a two-run double to left center as extended its lead to 5-0.

Five runs were more than plenty for Faithful whose only mistake was an eighth-inning triple to set up King's lone run.

Koeneman led the Eagles with a 2-for-4 effort and Reed added two RBIs.

Carson-Newman opens its final South Atlantic Conference series of the season on Friday against Newberry College. First pitch is at 3 p.m. at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

-C-N-