Lions travel to Mossy Creek to open SAC action
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Opening up South Atlantic Conference action with a three-game series against Mars Hill, Carson-Newman ignites league play at noon on Saturday with a doubleheader wrapping up with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final (15) | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 1 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 3 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final (8) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
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2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 6 | 0 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Opening up South Atlantic Conference action with a three-game series against Mars Hill, Carson-Newman ignites league play at noon on Saturday with a doubleheader wrapping up with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
"We have to come out and work on a couple things in training," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We need to make sure that the minds and bodies are healthy and fresh. We keep reminding them that it's a process. It doesn't mean that we aren't going to come out and talk about the things we can improve on. It's a microcosm of life."
Carson-Newman (6-10) has won seven of its last 10 SAC openers. Overall, the program 19-13 in the first conference contest of the year going 18-12-2 in the opening series. The club is opening at home for a second year in the road hosting top-ranked Wingate last season falling in each contest of the series.
Dating back to last year, the Eagles have nine of the last 13 league matches and three of the last four series against conference foes. The Orange and Blue have finished above .500 in league play in five years in a row since the 2017 season when it reached the SAC Tournament's Championship Monday.
The two programs have met 97 times as the Eagles hold a 64-33 overall advantage behind six straight victories since a 14-13 setback on Feb. 28, 2020 at Mossy Creek and eight of the last nine overall. Carson-Newman has won six straight in the series for the first time since 2001-04 when the team rattled off 12 wins in succession.
While the Orange and the Blue are 32-17 at home against the Lions, the Eagles won three out of four in the last series at Mossy Creek in 2020 after losing three straight series at home since taking two out of three in 2012.
When the programs met on Opening Day, the Eagles picked up a 14-7 victory as every player in C-N's starting lineup tallied a hit and scored in each of the final seven innings to pull away. Every hitter in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit with five tallying multi-hit games and six players reaching base at least three times in the affair. The Eagles went 9-for-24 with runners in scoring position.
Mars Hill (3-14, 1-2) has lost 14 of the first 17 games of the season but took the series finale against Wingate to open up league action a year ago. It was a 1-1 game going into the bottom of the sixth inning when the Lions exploded for five runs. Zach Weaver blasted a three-run homer while Dustin Revis hurled five innings of one-run baseball and Jake Wagoner tossed two scoreless innings.
The Lions have not won back-to-back games this year after falling to the defending National Champions, North Greenville, 21-7 on Tuesday. The club has played 13 games away from home this year going 2-11 posting a team ERA of 9.26 giving up 15 homers versus a 6.88 ERA at home.
No team in the nation has plunked more batters than coach Zach Honeycutt's team with 47 hit batters this year. The group is also walking 7.57 walks per nine innings pitched having allowed 117 walks in 138 innings pitched. The unit also allows 11.35 hits per nine innings pitched with nine games of at least double-digit hits allowed.
Left-hander Brian Smart is coming off of a quality start in the series opener against the Bulldogs firing six innings giving up three earned runs on eight hits and has a 4.11 ERA. Revis has fanned five batters in back-to-back outings.
Offensively the group is posting 4.4 runs per game for the year being held to two or fewer runs six times for the year. Zach Weaver leads the team with five roundtrippers and Jordan Lathe is hitting .397 with two bombs and 10 driven in while swiping seven bases in eight tries.
All three games will air on the Eagle Sports Network with video available on FloSports with a paid subscription and an audio-only stream on cneagles.com/live.
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