Four Eagles collect SAC accolades
For the ninth straight year, Carson-Newman baseball placed multiple players on the All-South Atlantic Conference teams and two on the all-defensive team as voted on by the league’s coaches and announced Thursday morning by the league office.
VIDEO: Hunter Harritan Interview
2024 All-South Atlantic Conference Teams
ROCK HILL, S.C.- For the ninth straight year, Carson-Newman baseball placed multiple players on the All-South Atlantic Conference teams and two on the all-defensive team as voted on by the league's coaches and announced Thursday morning by the league office.
Three Eagles earned All-SAC honors. Relief pitcher Hunter Harritan made the first-team, designated hitter James Denten made the second-team and Logan Floyd made the third-team. Two Eagles made all-defense in Floyd and he was joined by starting pitcher Noah Pridmore. All of these honors are firsts for the quartet.
It's the program's 23rd time with three players recognized on the All-SAC teams and just the third time it has placed two player on the all-defensive team.
Hunter Harritan (Huntersville, N.C.) becomes the 53rd player in program history to be named to the All-SAC First Team, and the first since 2021. That 2021 season is also the last time C-N had a pitcher named to the First Team in Brayden Coe.
The senior reliever pitched 32 1/3 innings finishing with an unbeaten 3-0 record and recorded ten saves, the fourth-most in a single-season in program history. He pitched in 18 games, 14 of which came in league play. Remarkably, Harritan recorded a win or a save in 12 of those 14 conference games. He had a stretch of nine straight games from mid-March to mid-April where he recorded a win or saves in all nine of those efforts on the mound. He tied his career high for strikeouts with five in back-to-back games against Emory & Henry and Catawba. The first-team reliever enters the postseason with a 2.23 ERA, the sixth-lowest mark in a single season.
"It was the mentality part for me," Harritan said. "Coach Tingle is really good with developing a pitcher's mentality. With him coming from Toledo, it really brought that advanced mindset. As soon as I got here, the first thing he put in my head is that you have to develop a killer's mentality and you have to really want to win and pitch well for your teammates and not just hope to have success."
James Denten (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) becomes the first Eagle hitter to be recognized on an all-conference team as a designated hitter since Heath Mason was a first-team DH in 2000. It's just the sixth occasion the Eagles have placed a DH on an all-conference team and the second to be a second team pick.
The senior finishes the regular season with the team's third highest batting average, hitting .317. His 43 RBI and 9 home runs are second most on the club, easily surpassing those marks from his junior season. Denten led the squad with six sacrifice flies and finished second in that league. The DH had nine games with multiple hits and ten games with multiple runs batted in.
Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) earns third-team honors after driving in a team-best 45 runs as a freshman. Being named to the third-team, Floyd is just the 10th third baseman to be named all-conference and the first since Brett Langhorne in 2018.
The freshman hit five home runs, all of which came from March 27th on. He led the team with a .342 batting average and had 16 multi-hit efforts including five games with three or more. Floyd has 11 multi-RBI games, driving in at least three in eight of those contests. Helping Carson-Newman win a series over Lenoir-Rhyne at the end of March, the rookie drove in a career-high five runs thanks to his fourth inning grand slam. Floyd only struck out 14 times in 149 at bats and was the 10th toughest hitter to strikeout in the SAC.
"I think it was believing in myself," Floyd said. "Beginning of the year I struggled and I was down on myself. Once I built the confidence around the guys that I can play, that was a big game changer for me. I started walking up to the plate with a different mindset every time."
Earning all-defensive team honors as well, Floyd is the 3rd, third baseman to be recognized for his defense joining Brandon Roberts and Langhorne as well. The rookie had the highest fielding percentage among third basemen in the conference this season at .975, only making two errors in 80 total chances. He is the ninth player in program history to be recognized on the all-defensive team.
"I believe that is something I have improved upon the most since being here," Floyd said. "I've always been a good hitter, but in high school defense was never really something I looked for. Getting all-defense was something I did not expect and I think it's the part of my game that has grown the most because of all the work we put in with the coaches."
For just the second time, Carson-Newman placed a pitcher on the all-defense team after a perfecting fielding year in 71 2/3 innings for Noah Pridmore (Ooltewah, Tenn.). The right-hander joins Robby Thigpen as the only two pitchers to be named to the All-SAC defensive team. The senior starting pitcher had 20 total chances, recording nine put outs and 11 assists. He helped turn a double play and only allowed four stolen bases when he was on the slab this season.
Pridmore finishes his final regular season with C-N with several career marks. Five wins, 71 2/3 innings and 49 strikeouts are all the most in a season for the senior.
Carson-Newman baseball moves into postseason play which starts with the South Atlantic Conference baseball tournament tomorrow evening in Hartsville, South Carolina at Tom J. New Baseball field. First pitch tomorrow evening is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Fans can listen along with the action at cneagles.com/live. A video stream of the contest is available with a subscription to Flo Sports.
