Well-travelled Eagles challenge Shorter Tuesday
ROME, Ga. – Putting its 10-game road winning streak on the line, Carson-Newman opens a four-game road trip with a journey to Shorter for a 3 p.m. first pitch against the Hawks at the Ledbetter Baseball Complex.
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ROME, Ga. – Putting its 10-game road winning streak on the line, Carson-Newman opens a four-game road trip with a journey to Shorter for a 3 p.m. first pitch against the Hawks at the Ledbetter Baseball Complex.
With a win on Tuesday, the Eagles would pass the program's all-time record for consecutive road wins passing a 14-day stretch in 1993. Holding a 9-0 mark this year, only Angelo State, 12-0 and winners of 22 in a row, has more wins without a loss this season. Overall, the program has fourth-longest streak in the nation with West Virginia State, 12, and Central Missouri, 11, sitting between C-N and Angelo State.
In the nine road affairs, the team has scored at least nine runs eight times as the lineup is hitting .335 with nine home runs. They have also been aggressive on the base paths with 13 stolen bases while drawing 53 walks and striking out only 65 times.
After going nearly a month without a starting pitcher tallying a quality start, Carson-Newman (16-12) has seen back-to-back starters tally one. Since the start of 2021, the club is 20-3 when a starter had recorded a quality starter and rattled off 10 straight victories prior to the loss in the series finale to Coker on Sunday.
Tuesday is the 11th meeting between the two programs with C-N holding a 6-4 edge all-time but Shorter has won each of the last three meetings since falling 6-5 at Mossy Creek on Feb. 13, 2018. In the last meeting on March 10, 2020, the penultimate contest before the Covid shutdown, the Eagles committed four errors in a 5-3 loss.
The Orange and Blue had won six of the first seven meetings and is 4-1 in Rome with the lone loss coming in the last visit on March 27, 2018, a 3-1 setback. C-N scored first but mustered just four hits as the Hawks won despite zero extra-base hits.
Shorter is coming off of a regional appearance earning the No. 6 seed in the 2021 NCAA South Regional falling to top-seeded West Florida 6-3 and fifth-seeded Alabama Huntsville 7-2 to finish the campaign 27-17. The highlight of the season was taking two out of three against third-ranked Lee at the beginning of April.
To open this year, the Hawks started the year 10-3 but has gone 4-7 since Feb. 25 after being swept at Valdosta State last weekend being outscored 19-8. The good news is that the team is opening up an eight-game homestand where the team is 11-4 this year.
Coach Wes Timmons has one of the better pitching staffs in the Gulf South Conference ranking fourth in team earned run average with a 4.32 tally on the year fanning 9.5 batters per nine innings, the second-best mark. The Hawks have allowed four or fewer runs nine times this year. However the team is ninth in the Gulf South with 5.26 base on balls per nine innings with eight games of eight or more.
There are four relievers that the team relies upon that has combined to fan 48 in 55 innings with an ERA of 2.45. Ethan Hawthorne leads that group through nine appearances striking out 18 in 15 1/3 innings over nine appearances with foes hitting .200 against the southpaw.
At the plate, the team has power and speed ranking 25th in the country with 27 home runs and fifth nationally with 62 stolen bases, over three per game. With eight homers in the last seven games, the Hawks have eight multi-homer games. Shorter has swiped a bag in 20 of 24 games with two or more in 14 affairs.
Junior second baseman Lyndon Weaver leads the team in homers, eight, and RBIs, 27, while stealing 11 bases in 12 tries. All told, 10 hitters have at least one home run this season and 13 have a stolen base led by Norman Leon's 14.
Tuesday's game will feature live stats with full updates available by following @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram.
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