GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Tusculum cranked two home runs and tallied five extra-base hits to hand Carson-Newman a 10-4 loss on Wednesday at Pioneer Park breaking a trend where the Eagles had won eight of the last nine in Greeneville.
"Great job by Tusculum," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "I thought pitching, defense and big hits today. I would apologize to every alum of Carson-Newman baseball because that was such a lackluster performance I've been around in a while. We were tired. We had a long weekend. Guys were tired and we played yesterday. That's a lot. It was a terrible day but that's on me. I didn't get them ready to play."
Carson-Newman (2-4) and Tusculum (1-2) have each won 23 times at Pioneer Park as the Pioneers have won two of the last three meetings after the Eagles rattled off seven straight triumphs.
Trey Miller (Rocky Point, N.Y.) kickstarted the offense in the top of the third with a perfect bunt single up the first-base line. After a sacrifice and a base hit, a ground out from Dalton McLain (Greeneville, Tenn.) opened the scoring. Mitchell Balint (Avondale, Pa.) laced a double off of the wall in left-center with two outs to bring in a run and give C-N a 2-0 edge.
The lead was short lived as the Pioneers scored three times in the bottom of the third to go on top 3-2. Tyler Ranel tripled to the left-center field alley to start the stanza before scoring on a fielding error. With two outs and a 3-2 count, Wes Reynolds hit a high fly ball that cleared the wall in left field for a two-run homer.
Defensive mistakes opened the door for a three-run fifth inning by the Pioneers. A walk, an error and a wild pitch combined with a squeeze bunt by Blaze McCauley opened the scoring. With two outs, Ranel laced a two-run double into the right-center field alley to stretch the lead to 6-2.
After the first two men were retired in the bottom of the seventh, Ranel singled through the left side of the infield, moved to second on a balk and scored on Zane Keener's base hit to right field to expand the bulge to 7-2.
Doubles by Sam Astern (Wellington, Fla.) and Zach Boze (Gallatin, Tenn.) brought in a pair of runs for the Eagles in the eighth to trim the margin to 7-4.
Two walks to start the bottom of the eighth set the stage for Christian Ortega. With one out, the right-handed hitter hit a towering three-run homer over the left-field fence to stretch the score to 10-4.
Jackson went 3-for-3 at the top of the order while the rest of the lineup went 5-for-30 with only Miller reaching base twice other than the lead-off hitter.
Only five of Carson-Newman's 10 runs allowed were earned runs with Harrison Travis (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) and Grif Hughes (Knoxville, Tenn.) each logging scoreless stanzas.
Ranel reached base five times finishing a homer shy of the cycle going 4-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Reynolds tallied a 2-for-3 day with two RBIs and two runs scored while Ortega also notched a pair of hits.
Billy Quinn secured the victory tossing 4 1/3 innings pitched fanning five batters giving up three hits. Tusculum pitching walked one batter and struck out eight.
The Eagles continue their road swing visiting West Georgia starting on Friday at 3 p.m. with a doubleheader on Saturday at noon. All three games can be heard on the Eagle Sports Network by going to cneagles.com/live.
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