April 29, 2014

Baseball concludes 2014 campaign in Mossy Creek against Shorter

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. the Carson-Newman Eagles (21-25) will clash with the Shorter Hawks (10-28) at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex as the Eagles look to end the season on a high note.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. the Carson-Newman Eagles (21-25) will clash with the Shorter Hawks (10-28) at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex as the Eagles look to end the season on a high note.

A season that looked promising as the Eagles began the year 7-1 turned during South Atlantic Conference where Carson-Newman dropped two out of three games in six straight series. Head coach Tom Griffin's group was on the cusp of making the SAC tournament, but four consecutive losses to Wingate and Catawba ensured that the Eagles would be on the outside, looking in at the other teams.

The Eagles have been led this season by junior outfielder Bo Ausmus who was selected a second team All-SAC selection and a gold glover. Ausmus is the 88th member of the Carson-Newman baseball team to be honored as an All-Conference selection since its inception in 1990. Only the Catawba Indians (131) have more honorees than the Eagles. The junior notched eight outfield assists. Ausmus is the first player since catcher Kyle Koeneman in 2012 to be named to an All-SAC team and the first player since pitcher Robby Thigpen in 2011 to win a gold glove. Thigpen was also named a second team All-SAC selection in 2011.

The Hawks were swept by the University of North Alabama over the weekend. Shorter has had a rough time on the road this season having won just four times in 20 tries away from the friendly confines.

Shorter has played a pair of top ten programs, No. 2 West Florida and No. 7 Delta State University. In five games, the Hawks were able to defeat Delta State 2-1 on April 19.

With a .262 team batting average, Shorter has just one regular player hitting over .300. Zach Santos is hitting .310 with three home runs, 22 RBI, 14 doubles and three triples. Santos went 2-for-5 with two RBI in the game against Carson-Newman in February while second basemen Darrius Jennings went 3-for-5 with one RBI and a run scored.

Shorter has used only eight pitchers this season on a regular basis as the team has compiled a 4.89 earned run average. Four of the eight pitchers have thrown at least 43.2 innings this year. By comparison, Carson-Newman has used 18 pitchers.

The two programs will meet for just the second time ever as the Eagles earned a 10-6 win in Rome, Ga. on February 6 as Carson-Newman scored nine unanswered runs after trailing 6-1 in the fifth frame. Seven different players had at least two hits while senior second basemen Peter Rajkovich (3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored) and sophomore Joe Tipton (3-for-6 with a double and two RBIs) notched three hits each.

Tune into cneagles.com/live for a free high definition broadcast of the game with pregame coverage beginning on the Eagle Sports Network at 2:50 p.m.

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