Eagles stay hot, sweep Trojans to extend winning streak
For the first time in 22 years, No. 21/11 Carson-Newman (23-6,13-2 SAC) has swept back-to-back conference series on the road. The Eagles swept a doubleheader with Anderson (17-13, 6-9 SAC) on Saturday afternoon to extend the winning streak to seven games with six of them coming on the road.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 2 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 1 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
VIDEO: Spencer Williams Interview
ANDERSON, S.C. – For the first time in 22 years, No. 21/11 Carson-Newman (23-6,13-2 SAC) has swept back-to-back conference series on the road. The Eagles swept a doubleheader with Anderson (17-13, 6-9 SAC) on Saturday afternoon to extend the winning streak to seven games with six of them coming on the road.
The series sweep of the Trojans extends Carson-Newman's winning streak in the series to six games. C-N has won nine of the past ten meetings versus AU.
The road conference sweep is the second straight weekend that Griffin's group has gone on the wall and secured a series sweep. It's the first time since 2003 that Carson-Newman has swept back-to-back league foes in a three-game series. That season, the Eagles swept Lenoir-Rhyne and Mars Hill in consecutive road series.
Between both games of the doubleheader, Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) was the only Eagle hitter to finish with two hits in each game.
Game One: Carson-Newman 5, Anderson 4
"The first game was really good, it could've gone either way," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "I thought (Andrew) Bench gave us a good outing today, Cooper in relief and the double plays that we got were big because they are sitting with a crooked number possibly about to happen. We got some timely hits too, two-strike, two-out hits, that is the key to the game."
The middle game of the series and the first of the day was closely contested.
Ryan Jenkins (Winter Haven, Fla.) started the game with a leadoff triple and Spencer Williams (Seymour, Tenn.) scored him on an infield single to give the Eagles an early advantage.
Making his second start of the year, Andrew Bench battled through a first inning in which AU got back-to-back two out hits, but forced them to strand the runners on base by recording his first strikeout of the afternoon.
C-N scored its second run of the game in the next inning. Nathan slapped a double to left field and Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) punched a single through the right side to make it 2-0.
Bench retired eight batters in a row through innings two through four to keep C-N ahead.
The Trojans finally broke through against the right-hander in the bottom of the fifth inning. Braeden Harrison launched a solo home run over the left field wall and Zach Stover singled with two outs to run Bench out of the game and help tie the game at 2 through five frames.
The Eagles would get those runs right back. After back-to-back base hits to start the sixth, Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) grounded in a run to bring C-N back in front. Two batters later with two outs, Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) ripped a double down the right field line to extend the margin back out to two runs.
Blake Cooper (Maryville, Tenn.) recorded the final out of the fifth inning, and got a critical double play to end the sixth inning with runners on first and second.
Another important run of insurance came in the seventh inning. With runners on second and third, Williams hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Trey Miller (Rocky Point, NY) and it was 5-2 Eagles.
A pair of C-N errors allowed Anderson to score in the bottom of that inning. A fielding and throwing error advanced a runner all the way to third and Harrison hit a sac fly to right to make it a two-run game.
A leadoff triple helped AU plate its fourth run of the game and it was a 5-4 ballgame heading to the final frame.
Eli Norris (Ringgold, Ga.) slammed the door in the ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts to secure his seventh save of the season. It's the second straight weekend that Norris has recorded two saves in a conference series.
Cooper recorded his first win of the year, tossing 2.1 innings without allowing an earned run.
Joshua Legnard was the losing pitcher. He went six innings, striking out seven batters while allowing four earned runs.
Game Two: Carson-Newman 9, Anderson 2
"In game two you know Kolton (Casson) is going to give you a good start," Griffin said. "He is going to be in the strike zone and he has three pitches that are going to play. We had some big hits, I thought Floyd had a big weekend, Cole Nathan offensively was really good. In left field, I thought Ryan Bolton and Braxton Smith had really good days. The bottom part of our lineup is getting crooked numbers as far as hits go. That's big when you have your lineup 1-9 doing that."
Both starting pitchers dominated the beginning of the series finale. C-N's Kolton Casson (Benton, Tenn.) and AU's Walker Case both faced the minimum in the first to toss a scoreless inning.
Anderson provided the biggest threats to score in innings two and three. Casson got out of a first and second jam with one out by getting a groundout and strikeout to keep the game scoreless after two innings.
AU's better of the two great chances came in the third. Back-to-back singles followed by a sac bunt placed runners in scoring position with one out. Facing the heart of the order, Casson recorded a clutch strikeout and fielded his own groundout to escape yet another jam.
Escaping that third inning pressured led to Carson-Newman running away with momentum in the next half inning.
Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) led off the inning with his first home run of the year to start the scoring. More runs would come in the fourth. A base hit and an error put runners in scoring position with one out. Braxton Smith (Cleveland, Tenn.) would deliver with his first hit of the weekend, a two-run single to right field and it was 3-0 C-N. Later in the fourth, Jenkins ripped a single into left center and scored two runs on the play and the Eagles opened up a five-run lead in the fourth inning.
That momentum would carry over to the bat of Nathan, who put the game out of reach with one swing of the bat. He demolished a baseball over the left center field wall, a three-run shot for his second of the week and season to open up a 8-0 lead for Carson-Newman.
After pitching four scoreless innings, Casson would see AU score for the first time in the fifth inning. A two-out triple into right field plated an unearned run because of an error and it was 8-1 Eagles in the fifth.
Both teams scored a run in the seventh and final inning. Miller doubled in C-N's ninth run of the contest with two outs and AU's Owens hit a sac fly in the bottom of the frame.
In his eight-career start, Casson won his DII-leading eighth game of the season. The freshman right-hander tossed five scoreless innings and struck out six batters, needing just 66 pitches. He has six strikeouts or more in six of his eight starts this season.
Braxton Roberts (Sweetwater, Tenn.) and Jaxon Seritt (Knoxville, Tenn.) tossed scoreless innings to finish off the weekend sweep of the Trojans.
Case suffered his second loss of the year, allowing five runs in 3.2 innings but only one of the runs was earned. Designated hitter Ben Bullard had a two-hit day in the loss.
Carson-Newman is back in action for a midweek contest versus Shorter, with the first pitch set for Tuesday at 2:00 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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