EMORY, V.A. – For the fifth time this weekend Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) hit a home run, but Carson-Newman came up short to drop the series finale to Emory & Henry (4-21, 2-13 SAC) Sunday afternoon.
"We got beat by a better team today," Carson-Newman baseball coach Tom Griffin said. "Yesterday we were the better team and today they were, that's baseball. Right now, we are not a good offensive baseball team. We have to find a way to be able to produce runs more consistently."
Despite the loss in the series finale, C-N still won the series taking both games of the doubleheader yesterday. The Eagles are now 3-5 on the road this season.
Carson-Newman has won three of its four league series this season and is 7-5 in league games.
E&H scored the first two runs of the game in the second inning. A squeeze play was executed well to score the game's first run and that was followed by an RBI double to make it 2-0.
C-N's offense was cool to start the game. It managed just two hits through the first four innings.
The Eagles got their first run of the day by taking advantage of an E&H mistake. A failed pickoff attempt moved Trey Miller (Rocky Point, N.Y.) into scoring position with two outs and Spencer Williams drove him in with an RBI single to right.
Travis tied the game in the sixth on his fifth home run of the weekend and the eighth this season putting him at 20 for his C-N career. It was the third time this weekend that Travis homered to either tie or give his team the lead.
After a fourth consecutive zero by the bullpen, Carson-Newman grabbed its first lead and only lead in the top of the seventh inning. Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) walked and advanced all the way to third after stealing a base and advancing on a wild pitch. Miller drove in the outfielder with a double down the left field line to make it 3-2.
The lead did not last as the Wasps would score the next seven runs. A two RBI double from Jacob Bebber made it 4-3 after seven innings. Bebber capped off a five-run eighth inning for the Wasps with a three-run homer and E&H led 9-3 heading to the ninth.
C-N's offense didn't go down without a late rally with two outs. Travis singled in a run and pinch hitter Ryan Bolton laced a single through the left side to trim the final deficit to three runs.
Travis ended his incredible hitting weekend with a .615 batting average, hitting five home runs and driving in seven runs. He had three hits in the series finale.
Ryan Potts (Dandridge, Tenn.) had a two-hit day in the defeat.
Bransen Angel (Lutz, Fla.) was excellent out of C-N's bullpen. He fired 3 1/3 scoreless innings allowing just two hits and striking out two. Nolan Rogers (Dandridge, Tenn.) also through a scoreless inning.
Carson-Newman returns home on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. when it welcomes Young Harris to the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex. The contest can be seen on FloSports at cneagles.com/flobase with your subscription or by visiting cneagles.com/live for a free audio-only stream on the Eagle Sports Network.
