Short-handed Eagles end season with 6-2 win at Georgia Southwestern

AMERICUS, Ga. – Playing without four starters, the Carson-Newman Eagles used a makeshift lineup to beat Georgia Southwestern, 6-2, in their season finale on Sunday afternoon at Hurricane Stadium.

With the win, C-N closes the year with a 28-26 overall record.

The Eagles played the weekend without three of their five seniors Kyle Koeneman, Troy Zawadzki, and Lance Rorex, along with starting leftfielder Zach Long in their season finale. The group missed due exam schedules and various personal reasons.

The young Eagles took advantage of a slew of early errors by the Hurricanes to jump to an early lead.

Rightfielder Phillip Duncan singled and scored on an RBI double by Cody Fox to open the first inning as the Eagles jumped to a 2-0 lead. Fox would score on an RBI single by Evan Jurjevic.

Duncan scored again in the third as the Eagles moved ahead 4-1. He singled through the left side and scored on an RBI ground out by Jurjevic. A throwing error on a force out at home by GSW plated the Eagles' second run of the third inning.

Weekend starter Chris Armstrong was one of seven Eagles to pitch. He allowed two earned runs on three hits in the start. Lucas Watson, Evan Faithful, Phillip Fabry, Bowe Craine, Evan Faithful and Ryan Fillers all combined to shutout the Hurricanes over the final seven innings.

With only nine position players available, a number of Eagles saw their first action of their career in new positions.

Senior Mason Guymon, in his final career game, made the rare move from catcher to the mound in the sixth to retire all three batters he faced in his first career appearance.  

All-South Atlantic Conference pitcher and the Eagles ace, Robby Thigpen, opened the game as the designated hitter. He walked and struck out in two plate appearances, his first two at-bats of the season.

Duncan carried the Eagles' offense. He finished 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored.

C-N made the most of a 7-6 edge in hits in the game, bouncing back from the night before. Georgia Southwestern outhit the Eagles, 16-7, in Saturday's game, a 9-3 Hurricane win.

 -C-N-