NEWBERRY, S.C. --- Carson-Newman scored eight unanswered runs in the final three innings as the fourth-seeded Eagles defeated No. 8 seed Tusculum 8-3 Saturday afternoon in an elimination game of the 2023 South Atlantic Conference Baseball Championship Opening Round at the Smith Road Complex.
Carson-Newman (25-22) will play another elimination game Saturday night against No. 5 seed Lenoir-Rhyne with the winner to face host and top-seed Newberry on Sunday. The Pioneers end their season at 25-24.
Tusculum jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but C-N rallied with a five-run seventh inning and reliever Jake Wright blanked the Pioneers over the final 5.2 innings to secure the win.
The Eagles recorded 14 hits in the game with Dalton McClain leading the charge with his 3-for-5 performance. Aiden Gibson, went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Nelson Smith, James Denten and Zach Boze all accounting for two-hit outings.
The Pioneers finished with nine hits including two hits apiece by Ben Scartz, Tyler Ranel and Will Samuelson.
Tusculum plated single runs in the first, third and fourth innings to take a 3-0 lead. In the first Christian Ortega reached on a one-out single and moved to third on Ranel's base hit. Ortega score the game's first run on Zach Brunet's ground out.
The Pioneers scored a run in the third as Brunet scored on a wild pitch. In the fourth frame, Samuelson led off with a walk and later scored on Kayl Ratliff's RBI double.
Meanwhile, Tusculum starter Brady Salyards was pitching a strong game as he blanked the Eagles through the first six innings, while working out of a couple of early jams.
In the top of the seventh, Carson-Newman got the first six batters aboard including a pair of infield singles and a walk off of Salyards to start the rally. Drew Sliwinski came on in relief but was unable to record an out as the Eagles posted three consecutive hits including a two-run single by Spencer Williams to tie the game at 3-3. Nelson Smith broke the tie with his single. Jacob Willett took over on the mound and threw a wild pitch to bring home Williams with the fifth run of the inning. Willett record back-to-back strikeouts and a foul out to end the frame as TU trailed 5-3.
C-N added two runs in the eighth and another run in the ninth for an 8-3 advantage.
Wright scattered four hits and three hits in his relief outing to improve to 4-1 on the season. Sliwinski would suffer the loss to finish at 2-4 on the year.
Tusculum finished the season with 41 home runs which are tied for the 10th most in school history. TU's 230 walks in 2023 are ninth in the TU record book while its .962 team fielding percentage is tied for the seventh best in a season.
