Eagles Upset No. 6 Florida Southern in Walk-Off Extra Inning Fashion
Down goes number six.
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
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VIDEO: Frankie Delgado Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Down goes number six.
Frankie Delgado (Deltona, Fla.) laced a walk-off single into right-center field to walk off No. 6 Florida Southern (15-3, 5-1 Sunshine State Conference) to give No. 25 Carson-Newman (15-4, 7-2 South Atlantic Conference) a 7-6 win and its 12th win in 13 games at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"That team is absolutely loaded, and we knew that coming in," Carson-Newman baseball head coach Tom Griffin said. "Early on getting the lead, and then great pitching and defense getting us into the seventh. We had a total of 14 freebies (in the seventh through ninth innings) either walks, errors, hit by pitch, where we gave them bases. So for us to still be in the game after that many is really good."
Ryan Higgins got in a rocking chair early in his sixth start of the year. The sophomore blanked the Mocs through the first two innings and recorded three strikeouts.
Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) and Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) recorded Carson-Newman's first two hits in the bottom of the second, but the game stayed scoreless through two innings.
The Eagles started the scoring in the bottom of the third. Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) began the inning with a leadoff single. He later advanced to third on a sac bunt and wild pitch and scored on a Ryan Jenkins (Winter Haven, Fla.) sac fly to make it 1-0. Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) and Kilgore extended the lead with RBI singles in the third and Carson-Newman led 3-0 after three innings.
Higgins continued to be spectacular for C-N. He sent FSC down in order in the fourth and induced a ground ball double play to complete five innings. The right-hander tossed a scoreless sixth inning, getting the Mocs to groundout three times in the frame.
Kilgore stayed hot at the plate in the bottom of the sixth. His third hit of the day was his fourth home run of the year, launching an 0-2 pitch over the left-center field wall to extend C-N's lead to 4-0 after six innings.
SEE YAAAAAAAAA
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 7, 2025
4⃣th long ball of the year for @TannerKilgore2
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Carson-Newman ran into trouble in the top of the seventh inning. A leadoff single, followed by one-out free passes loaded the bases for Florida Southern. The Eagles were close to escaping the jam. Relief pitcher Mark Salicco (Waxhaw, N.C.) forced Cory Filley to hit a groundball but C-N was unable to complete the back end of the 6-4-3 double play and FSC scored two runs on the play to cut halfway into the deficit.
The damage continued in the eighth as Mikey Scott got aboard via an error, stealing second to get him in position for an RBI double off the bat of Grant Thoroman bringing the Mocs within a run.
Down to its final three outs in the ninth Florida Southern used small ball after Chris McKenna got aboard with a leadoff walk. He advanced to second via a wild pitch before making it up to third on a sacrifice bunt, later scoring on a sac fly from Cleary Simpson to tie the game at 4-4.
The ball was turned to Blake Cooper (Maryville, Tenn.) but down to their final out the Mocs were able to score two runs on a fielding error that allowed Rohsean Riley to reach safely giving FSC the 6-4 lead.
The roles were reversed with Carson-Newman now down to its final three outs Cole Nathan got the inning going with a one-out base hit before another Moccasin strikeout pushed the Eagles to the brink. After a base hit from Trey Miller (Rocky Point, N.Y.) and a walk to load the bases Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) grounded a base hit up the middle scoring two as C-N forced the game into extras for the second time in as many weekends.
TIE GAMEEEEEEEEEEEE
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 7, 2025
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FSC couldn't get anything going in the tenth with the Eagles turning to Andrew Bench (Fonthill, Ont.) on the mound. Wyatt Campbell launched a ball into left field but Seth Benner (Morgantown, Ind.), who came in as a pinch hitter in the ninth, tracked it down and made the catch holding on to the ball as he collided hard with the outfield wall.
After neither side could get a base runner aboard in the 11th FSC finally broke through offensively in the 12th with a base hit, but a fly out the next pitch from Bench.
Carson-Newman desperate to earn the top-25 victory got Williams aboard with a one-out base hit, a sacrifice bunt from Luke Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) and an intentional walk of Kilgore set it up for catcher Frankie Delgado who was a defensive substitution earlier in the game.
Delgado had not collected a base hit through the first month of the season but on a 1-0 count, the Eagles catcher laced a ball into right-centerfield scoring Williams as Carson-Newman walked off its first game of the season.
FRANKIE IS THE MANNNNN
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 7, 2025
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"First pitch (on the final at-bat) was just a backed-up slider, didn't really look like he threw it that well, same as my last at-bat," Delgado said. "I kinda had a feeling that he was coming at me with that fastball. He's a good arm, they're a really good team so I was just gearing up for that fastball ready to go on it, and he put it right where I needed it."
Bench got the win in relief after throwing three innings to improve to 1-0 while starter Higgins got the quality start throwing 6.1 innings allowing just two hits and two runs, though neither were earned.
Florida Southern starter Sachem Ramos also had a solid start throwing seven innings only allowing four runs, with two being earned. Reliever BJ Rivera took the loss throwing all three frames in extra innings and allowing the game-winning run to score.
Kilgore lifted the Eagles offensively with a 3-for-5 day at the plate including his solo home run in the sixth. Williams also had three hits in a 3-for-6 performance which included him tying the game in the ninth and crossing the plate for the game-winning run in extras.
The win marks the first extra-inning win in program history against a ranked opponent as well as the longest game by innings against a ranked opponent.
The series continues and wraps up tomorrow at noon. The doubleheader will air on a video stream available on FloSports with a subscription. A free audio stream will also be available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
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