Eagles picked to finish third in SAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman baseball has been picked to finish third by the coaches in the South Atlantic Conference.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman baseball has been picked to finish third by the coaches in the South Atlantic Conference.
Carson-Newman received 112 points to slot third in the preseason poll that was released by the league office on Monday morning.
This preseason ranking is C-N's highest projected finish since 2011 and just the fifth time in the past 20 seasons it has been picked third or higher.
"I think most of them, if they are like me, handed it off to someone else or they base it on what happened last year," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Nobody knows what anyone has. It's irrelevant and doesn't mean a thing. We don't know what teams have what, and teams don't know what we have or what we've lost."
Carson-Newman's 2025 campaign was filled with many remarkable achievements, headlined by a NCAA Tournament berth for the fifth time in school history. The Eagles won 37 games, their fourth-most in a single season and the second-most under Griffin. C-N collected a program-best 21 wins in SAC play and produced its best winning percentage in SAC play in school history to finish in third place.
The two other teams that joined C-N at the NCAA Tournament are picked one and two. Catawba is picked to win the league with 126 points and seven first-place votes. Lenoir-Rhyne is close behind with four first-place votes and 122 points.
Wingate checks in at four with 102 points. 15 points behind the Bulldogs is Coker to round out the top five.
Lincoln Memorial received the final first-place vote to slot in at six. Newberry edged UVA Wise by a single point for seventh, while Anderson and Tusculum finish the top ten. Mars Hill and Emory & Henry were separated by one point at the bottom of the poll.
Carson-Newman opens the doors to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex on Friday January 30th, at 2:00 p.m., starting a three-game series with Charleston (W.V). Every home game can be heard on cneagles.com/live with live video available on the Eagle Sports Network.
