JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. --- Tusculum homered four times on the day as Bryson Ford hit two solo shots and Daalen Adderley's go-ahead homer in the second game led the 12th-ranked Pioneers to a split of a South Atlantic Conference baseball doubleheader at Carson-Newman Sunday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Complex.
Carson-Newman scored four times in the first inning and rode the solid pitching of Brayden Coe and Tyler Shaver en route to a 5-3 win in the opener. In the second game, the TU duo of Justin Parker and Mitch McCain blanked the Eagles for the final 4.1 innings as the Pioneers bounced back with a 5-3 victory.
Game 1: Carson-Newman 5, No. 12 Tusculum 3
Carson-Newman batted around in the bottom of the first inning, scoring four times as the Eagles defeated Tusculum 5-3 in the series opener.
Tusculum jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Daulton Martin started the game with a base hit and later scored on Fuzzy Furr's sacrifice fly.
C-N lead-off batter Tyler Thompson took the third offering from TU starter Gunner Becker (6-2) and homered to left field to tie the game at 1-1. Later in the inning, Killian Daughtry blasted a two-run homer to give the Eagles a 3-1 advantage. C-N loaded the bases with three straight walks, all with two outs, and Micah Genter drove in the fourth run of the inning with his infield single.
The Eagles added a run in the second on a Harrison Travis RBI double to make it a 5-1 game.
Tusculum reliever Harbor Jefferson silenced the Carson-Newman bats for the remainder of the game as he blanked the hosts for five innings and retired 15 of the 18 batters he would face.
Meanwhile, Tusculum chipped away at the deficit as Ford belted a solo home run in the fifth inning and the Pioneers loaded the bases with one out in the sixth. Shaver came aboard to relieve Coe and surrendered a walk to Chase Wullenweber to trim the deficit to 5-3. But Shaver got a strikeout and a ground out to end the threat.
Shaver would retire the Pioneers in order in the seventh to secure his second save of the season. It was also the first time this spring TU had suffered back-to-back losses.
Game 2: No. 12 Tusculum 5, Carson-Newman 3
Tusculum used three home runs and got solid pitching performances out of its bullpen once again as the Pioneers bounced back with a 5-3 victory over Carson-Newman.
TU got solo home runs from Martin, Ford and Daalen Adderley, while Parker and McCain held the Eagles at bay for the final four-plus innings.
Parker (2-1) went 3.1 innings where he scattered two hits and struck out a pair, while McCain posted is league-leading sixth save of the year as he blanked the Eagles in the final frame.
Martin homered to open the game for the Pioneers, but C-N answered in the bottom of the first as Thompson led off with a double and Travis followed with a one-out double of his own to tie the game at 1-1. For Martin, it was his seventh home run of the season and 24th of his career moving him into ninth-place in school history.
Tusculum would break the tie in the top of the fourth as Zane Keener and Trey Hinton were both hit by a pitch. Wullenweber would drive in his second run of the day, this time with a bloop single to right field.
The Pioneers added a run in the fifth on Ford's second home run of the day, another blast to left field for a 3-1 TU lead. The Eagles tied the game with two runs in the fifth inning off of TU starter Nick Flesher. Thompson led off with a walk and later scored on Daughtry's two-out double. Zack Boze doubled home Daughtry with the tying run. Mark Parkinson was hit by a pitch as TU went to the pen for Parker. Parker hit Andrew Carpenter with a pitch to load the bases, but he would bounce back and get out of the inning with a strike out.
The score remained tied until the eighth inning when Adderley hit a solo blast to left field. TU added another run in the ninth inning on a strange play. With Kyle Williams at first base and one out, Martin hit a home run over the left field fence, but on the play, Martin passed Williams on the base path. Williams was allowed to score but Martin was limited to a RBI single and was out on the play
Leading 5-3, McCain took over for Parker and recorded three strikeouts and worked around a one-out walk to record his 13th career save which are the fifth-most in school history and one away from tying Devan Watts (2015-2016) for fourth place in the TU record book. McCain was pitching in his 71st career game, moving past Justin Aldridge (2000-2003) for sole possession of fourth place in program history
Martin's RBI in the ninth was the 176th of his career, which are second in program history and he is now 10 away from matching the TU record of 186 held by All-American catcher Sean Cotten (2008-2011).
The two teams will wrap up the four-game series with a noon doubleheader on Monday from the Silver Diamond Complex.
