Eagles strikeout season-high 13 in home win over King
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman’s (20-13) pitching staff reset its season-high in strikeouts in a 13-7 non-conference win over King (10-25) on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
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0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 13 | 13 | 2 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's (20-13) pitching staff reset its season-high in strikeouts in a 13-7 non-conference win over King (10-25) on Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.
"The key was getting a lot of guys in pitching wise," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "Denver (Slifka) gave us two good innings and then the freebies hit us. James Salicco hasn't pitched much, came in and did a really good job. Eli Norris did a really good job. He has been trying to work on command a little bit and I thought he looked like the Eli we are used to seeing. Culpepper's two to three innings was a real positive for us as well."
The win for Carson-Newman closes a very strong end to the month of March. The Eagles won 11 of their final 13 games this month to finish 12-5 in March.
The Eagles also continued their winning ways at home versus the Tornado, collecting their ninth straight home win in the series. Overall, C-N has now won 14 of the last 16 meetings.
Five different Eagles aided in the season high in strikeouts. Brock Culpepper's (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) four in 2 2/3 scoreless innings led the way.
Carson-Newman's 13-run performance featured a 13-hit day, its ninth double-digit hitting game in its past 11 games.
Two Eagles led the offensive attack. Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) went three for five with two RBI, while Gibson matched that output as well. Gibson now has 11 hits over his left four games, the most by an Eagles hitter in a four-game stretch this season.
The Eagles used an eight-run second inning to keep a good cushion throughout the game. A throwing error started the inning for the Eagles. Back-to-back infield bunt singles by Aiden Gibson and Johno Pierce involved King throwing errors as well, aiding C-N in plating the game's first three runs. The final five runs of second inning all came with two outs.
Logan Floyd (Adairsville, Ga.) scored the fourth run of the inning on an infield single. Consecutive bases loaded seven-pitch walks were drawn by Cole Nathan (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) to extend the lead to 6-0. Gibson ended the frame with a two-run single through the left side that put C-N ahead 8-0 after two.
King scored its two runs next half inning. The two runs scored on a failed pickoff attempt and by a bases loaded hit by pitch.
C-N wasted no time getting those runs right back. Floyd doubled down the left field line and Bradley Soto Diaz (Davenport, Fla.) followed with a sac fly to give the Eagles 10 runs after three innings.
The Tornado made things interesting in the fifth inning. The first of two Logan Janney home runs was a one-out grand slam to bring King within four.
Once again, Nathan and Kilgore drew consecutive bases loaded walks to plate two more C-N runs in the bottom half of the fifth to push the lead to 12-6.
Culpepper took control of the game for C-N on the mound in the sixth and seventh innings. He sent King down in order in both frames and had four strikeouts to maintain the lead.
Eli Norris (Ringgold, Ga.) carried Culpepper's success into his outing. Norris struck out the side in the eighth inning, blanking King for a third straight inning. Seven of C-N's season-high 13 strikeouts came in innings six through eight.
Pinch-hitting in the eighth, Kylan Hornbuckle delivered his second triple this season and of his career. His three-bagger scored Rogers to give C-N its 13th run of the day.
Janney's second home run of the game came with two outs in the ninth, but that was all King had in the final frame.
In his first career start, Denver Slifka (Knoxville, Tenn.) went 2 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs on one hit with three strikeouts.
James Salicco also had a scoreless outing out of C-N's pen, recording four outs in five batters. He was one of four Eagles with multiple strikeouts in the win.
Connor Haynes suffered his third loss of the season in 1 2/3 innings. Seven of the eight runs he allowed were unearned runs.
Carson-Newman continues an eight-game homestand on Friday, starting a three-game South Atlantic Conference series with Wingate starting at 2:00 p.m. A video stream of the weekend series is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/flobase. The game can be heard on cneagles.com/live. Fans can also watch the radio crew at work with a feed of press row on YouTube.
