KODAK, Tenn. --- Carson-Newman rallied from a three-run deficit as the fifth-seeded Eagles defeated No. 2 seed Tusculum 8-6 Friday afternoon at the 2021 Pilot Flying J South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament at Smokies Stadium.
The Eagles (26-13) advance to Saturday's winner's bracket semifinal while the 11th-ranked Pioneers (29-10) will face No. 7 seed Coker in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles posted 14 hits and got three-hit performances from Tyler Thompson and Matt Parkinson. Zach Boze, Henry Jackson and Andrew Carpenter also had multi-hit outings for Carson-Newman, who ended a three-game losing streak to Tusculum. C-N also took advantage of four Tusculum errors.
The C-N pitching duo of Matt Bradley and Tyler Shaver took the workload for the Eagles as they held the Pioneers to eight hits on the day, while five of those going for extra bases. TU's Bryson Ford went 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, while Murphy Flood had a double and a triple in the loss.
Tusculum go on the board first in the opening frame as Daalen Adderley drove in Ford from second base on his two-out, ground-rule double. C-N tied the game in the top of the third on Boze's two-out single. TU got the run back in the bottom of the frame on Ford's solo homer to left field and a 2-1 Pioneer lead. Tusculum added two more runs in the fourth as Zane Keener led off with a walk and scored on Flood's one-out triple down the right field line. Flood would touch the plate on Trey Hinton's sacrifice fly as Tusculum led 4-1.
The Eagles scored twice in the fifth inning and took the lead for the first time with three runs in the sixth as C-N went up 6-4. In the bottom of the sixth, the Pioneers mounted a rally as Fuzzy Furr got aboard with a single and tried to score from first on Flood's double. Furr was thrown out at the plate and an altercation between Furr and Parkinson at home plate. Furr was ejected for contact at the plate, while Parkison was ejected for taunting as the score remained 6-4.
The Eagles added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on Jackson's two-out, two-run single for an 8-4 C-N lead. TU scored in the bottom of the seventh when Daulton Martin was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Ford's RBI single. But Shaver, who took over for Bradley in the top of the inning, got a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage and keep it at an 8-5 score.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Pioneers got two runners aboard with one-out. Martin reached on a single and Ford moved him over to third base with a double. Brandon Trammell flied out to bring home Martin for an 8-6 score. But Shaver closed out the game getting Adderley to fly out to secure his third save of the year and second against Tusculum.
Bradley went six innings, scattered five hits, four runs, four walks and three strikeouts to improve to 3-2 on the year. Tusculum reliever Harbor Jefferson suffered the loss (2-1).
