Phenomenal pitching leads to an Eagles sweep over Limestone
For the first time in six seasons, No. 24/19 Carson-Newman (19-6, 10-2 SAC) sweeps a conference foe on the road, winning both games of a doubleheader on Saturday over Limestone (12-15, 6-9 SAC) with final scores of 5-3 and 5-1 in Gaffney, South Carolina.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
|
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0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
|
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
GAFFNEY, S.C. – For the first time in six seasons, No. 24/19 Carson-Newman (19-6, 10-2 SAC) sweeps a conference foe on the road, winning both games of a doubleheader on Saturday over Limestone (12-15, 6-9 SAC) with final scores of 5-3 and 5-1 in Gaffney, South Carolina.
Carson-Newman's three-game sweep of Limestone is the program's first road sweep in conference play since it swept Queens back in April of 2019.
The Eagles have now won ten of the last 11 meetings over Limestone including seven of the last eight games in Gaffney. This is C-N's sixth straight series win over the Saints.
"Winning a series on the road is tough," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "We got some great pitching from Jackson Underwood, Andrew Bench, and Kolton Casson. Bench was sick the last couple of days, but drove over today and did a great job in relief. Again, the offense had contributors throughout the lineup. Ryan Bolton at the bottom of the lineup had a great series. I thought Nick Castellana and Frankie Delgado were really good with the pitching staff and calling the games."
The sweep on the road is C-N's first since the beginning of the 2022 season when it swept Alabama Hunstville on the road.
Game One: Carson-Newman 5, Limestone 3
Yesterday's two-out hitting carried into Saturday afternoon. Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) doubled with two outs and Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) brought him home with a single to left field to put the Eagles ahead early.
Back-to-back second inning hits plated C-N's second run of the game. Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) poked a pitch into the left center field gap to score Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) from first. Later in the frame, Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) crushed a ball into center field to score two runs with two outs and it was 4-0 Eagles in the second.
Winston Parke singled in Limestone's first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning, but Jackson Underwood (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) responded with back-to-back strikeouts to limit the damage.
Parke drove in another run in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-2 game after four complete innings.
With Carson-Newman's offense held in check over the next six innings of the game, Andrew Bench pitched phenomenally to keep the Eagles in the lead.
Bench entered in the fourth inning and forced the Saints to leave a runner in scoring position. In his next three full innings, the right-handed pitcher blanked the Saints despite allowing a baserunner each inning. He pitched his first 1-2-3 inning in the eighth inning to keep the Eagles ahead going into the last inning.
The offense came back to life to grab an insurance run in the ninth inning. Williams singled down the right field line to plate his third run of the game and C-N's lead was 3, with three outs left to get.
The Saints scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning, and brought the go-ahead run to the plate. But Eli Norris (Ringgold, Ga.) entered for the final out and got Zach Greenberg to groundout to end the game.
Bench earned his second win of the season, tossing five innings and allowing just one earned run while striking out five batters. Norris' final out of the game gave him his fifth save of the season.
Offensively, Williams led the way with his three RBI and two hits. Bolton also was productive, going two for three at the dish.
Game Two: Carson-Newman 5, Limestone 1
It took until the third inning, but once again Carson-Newman struck first scoring twice in the top of the third inning. Braxton Smith (Cleveland, Tenn.) launched his first career home run to leadoff the inning. Jenkins singled later in the inning and came around to score on a Williams two-out base hit and it was 2-0 Eagles in the third inning.
Limestone would get a run back in the bottom of the inning with a two-out RBI hit.
C-N got that run back next half inning. Nathan reached on an error, stole second and then scored on an Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) RBI infield single and it was 3-1 C-N after four innings.
Back on the mound with a two-run lead, Kolton Casson (Benton, Tenn.) settled in and delivered his first 1-2-3 frame in the fourth inning.
Carson-Newman continued its mid-inning surge offensively in the fifth inning and did it once again with two-outs. Floyd singled in Miller from third to make it 4-1 Eagles. Nathan, the next batter, tripled into right field to plate Floyd and pad onto C-N's lead at four runs.
That fourth inning is when Casson got into his groove. He closed the game by retiring the final 12 Saints hitters in order to finish off his third complete game of the season.
In his seventh career start, Casson recorded his seventh straight win to start his career allowing just one run on four hits with two strikeouts. He completed his third game of the season in just 77 pitches.
C-N got a balanced offensive effort from it group in the six-hit, five-run performance. Six different players recorded the hits with five each recording one RBI, highlighted by Smith's first career home run.
Carson-Newman is back in action for two midweek games versus Tusculum, with the first set for Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. from the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. The games will air with a video stream available on FloSports with a subscription. There will also be a free audio stream available courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network on cneagles.com/live.
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