Griffin and Thompson tabbed preseason first-team All-SAC
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Two Carson-Newman outfielders were named to the South Atlantic Conference’s preseason first-team Monday announced by the league. Jordan Griffin and Tyler Thompson land on the top unit for a second consecutive year preparing for their senior seasons.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Two Carson-Newman outfielders were named to the South Atlantic Conference's preseason first-team Monday announced by the league. Jordan Griffin and Tyler Thompson land on the top unit for a second consecutive year preparing for their senior seasons.
Griffin has produced a trio of laurels in his time in a C-N uniform. During the shortened season in 2020, he apperaed in 19 games starting a dozen going 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts hitting a homer and driving in six runs. The Ellerslie, Ga. native posted two hits three times over a four-game stretch in early February including his lone homer of the year on Feb. 11 against King. In a 20-18 win over Limestone on March 4, Griffin went 3-for-6 with a double and four RBIs on March 4.
In 45 games as a sophomore, Griffin hit .309 with a .429 OBP knocking eight home runs with 35 RBIs and seven stolen bases. He finished the year with 15 multi-hit games and nine multi-RBI efforts. The Ellerslie, Ga. native was named SAC Player of the Week on March 4, 2019 after going 6-for-11 with two bombs and six RBIs against Belmont Abbey and Mars Hill.
Griffin posted a nine-game hitting streak from April 6-22 going 14-for-29 with a homer, nine RBIs and nine runs scored. He will try to start the year the way he finished 2019 after hitting .395 with a .500 on-base percentage in the final 12 games.
Thompson has racked up the honors for his career bringing his overall tally to a dozen after being a preseason All-American as a junior and earning a slot on the CoSIDA Academic All-American to conclude his third campaign in Jefferson City.
Once again one of the top hitters in the country in a CoVid-19 shortened 2020 season, Thompson ranked fifth in the country in hits racking up 39 leading the team with 11 multi-hit efforts and pacing the crew with five multi-RBI outings. The outfielder produced 60 total bases in the shortened season to rank 20th in the country.
Over 25 games, he posted a slash line of .379/.422/.583 with four homers, 20 RBIs, five doubles, two triples, four stolen bases and 25 runs scored. In a three-game series against No. 1 Tampa, he notched a multi-hit effort in each of the three games going 8-for-13 with two homers, three RBIs and five runs scored. That series sparked a hot close to the year where is had 10 multi-hit effort over the final 16 outings of the year going 32-for-68, .471, at the dish.
In nine conference games, the junior hit .417 posting the third-most hits in the league with 15, five of which went for extra bases. He has started 114 of the 118 games he has played in his career posting a .374 batting average with 15 homers and 79 runs batted in.
Thompson has a career slash line of .374/.453/.586 cranking 15 bombs with 79 RBIs adding 30 stole bags. A series against to-ranked Tampa sparked a hot close to the year where is had 10 multi-hit effort over the final 16 outings of the year going 32-for-68, .471, at the dish.
The Eagles open their season on Feb. 6 in the first of a four-game series at Limestone before returning home to open the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on Feb. 13 against Mars Hill. Every home game in 2021 will feature a high definition video feed with an accompanying audio stream available on cneagles.com/live.
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