Eagles squeak out win in series opener with Coker
April 17, 2026

Eagles squeak out win in series opener with Coker

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (25-17, 14-14 SAC) took advantage of Coker (12-30, 9-19 SAC) miscues in the eighth to scratch across the go-ahead run to win 5-4 in the series opener on Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (25-17, 14-14 SAC) took advantage of Coker (12-30, 9-19 SAC) miscues in the eighth to scratch across the go-ahead run to win 5-4 in the series opener on Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex.

"It's a good game because it went down to the wire," Carson-Newman head coach Tom Griffin said. "I think me and Fico (Kondla) would agree that it wasn't the prettiest game. But, it's baseball and you have to learn to overcome the errors and bad baserunning. That game went right to the end. Left a lot of guys on, part of that was pitching and the other was our guys expanding the zone. Our goal coming in was to not allow freebies to that club and Christian Henderson was tremendous. He was in the strike zone and Carson Cochran called a great game. Ryan Bolton was the spark plug late in the game, getting the base hit and getting to second on that bobble. That was the win for us, a headsy play by a headsy baseball player."

Carson-Newman wins its sixth series opener of the year and its 12th home win of the year as well. The win also brings the Eagles to .500 in league play for just the second time this season.

The Eagles jumped in front early with a two-run first. With the bases loaded and two outs, Aiden Gibson (Cleveland, Tenn.) poked a two-run, two-out single through the left side to make it 2-0.

Coker would get a run back in the top of the second. After consecutive singles to open the inning, Luke Peterson brought home a run on a groundout to trim the deficit in half after two innings.

Carson-Newman had great chances to add to its lead in the third and fourth innings. Two-out base hits were left on in the third and a bases loaded double play ended the fourth inning.

The Eagles broke through again in the fifth inning. Bradley Soto Diaz (Davenport, Fla.) singled and Tanner Kilgore (Kingsport, Tenn.) doubled to right to put two in scoring position. Sebastian Rodriguez (Greensboro, N.C.) followed, singling in Soto Diaz to make it 3-1. C-N's second and final run of the inning scored on a double play and it was 4-1 after five innings.

Christian Henderson (Clarksville, Tenn.) was great for C-N on the mound. After allowing back to back hits to start the second inning, he retired 12 straight Coker hitters to pitch three straight scoreless innings.

Coker finally figured Henderson a little in the sixth. Three consecutive singles started the frame and loaded the bases. Gavin Johnson cut the deficit in half with a RBI groundout to make it 4-2. Coltin Penner, the next batter, blooped a single into center field to tie the game at four after six innings.

The Eagles stranded more runners in the seventh. Braxton Smith (Cleveland, Tenn.) singled and moved to second on an error to put runners in scoring position, but they were left there.

The eighth inning was the inning that decided things. With a runner at second and one out for Coker, C-N turned to Brock Culpepper (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) to escape the jam and he did just that. A groundout and fly out helped the senior post a zero in the eighth.

That momentum carried into the bottom of the inning. Ryan Bolton (Knoxville, Tenn.) singled and got into scoring position with an error to start the frame. After an intentional walk, C-N sacrifice bunted the runners into scoring position with one out. Soto Diaz hit a chopper back toward the Coker pitcher Cooper Mitchell. After he looked off the runners, he fired a bad throw toward first, allowing the go-ahead run to score on the throwing error.

Culpepper came back out in the ninth, facing four batters to toss a scoreless ninth and win his fourth game of the season.

Henderson's line closed at 7 1/3 innings of four run ball with seven hits and three strikeouts. 64 of his 88 pitches were strikeouts and only three Coker batters saw their counts have at least two balls.

Four different Eagles posted multi-hit days. Bolton, Kilgore, Rodriguez and Soto Diaz each had two.

Gibson drove in a team-high two runs.

Mitchell took the loss on the mound, pitching 2 1/3 innings with two strikeouts. The only run he allowed was that unearned run in the eighth.

The Cobras could not overcome a season-high five errors, two costly ones in the final inning.

The series continues and wraps up tomorrow at noon. 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. 

The Senior Day ceremony tomorrow morning is scheduled for 11:20 a.m.

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