Cleveland State baseball traveled to Carson Newman on Monday and came away with a 6-5 win in a nine-inning contest. Starter Ben Smith took the win moving his record to a perfect 4-0 on the season as Bryce Houghton pitched the final inning in relief for his sixth save.
On the day the Cougars banged out 12 hits, including four doubles by Jacob Robinson who also scored three runs and drove in one. With two runs in the first, one in the second, two more in the third and one in the fifth Cleveland State scored all the runs they would need in the win.
Hunter Gray with two doubles and an RBI and AJ Swader with a double and an RBI gave the Cougars seven doubles on the day. Bryce Burkey, Bryson Lofton, Brandon LeJeune, Rhett Hammontree and Nick Iezzi each had one hit. Hammontree’s hit drove in a run in the two-run third. Bryce Jenkins swiped two bases, scored once and walked three times giving him a team leading 19 positioning him seventh in the conference. Cameron Campbell also stole a base giving the Cougars 65 thefts on the season good for fourth in the conference.
Conference weekend starts on Friday as Cleveland State plays host to Chattanooga State in a nine-inning game with a start time of 2 p.m. EST. The 17-12 Cougars with a conference record of 6-5 are back at it with Chattanooga in a doubleheader on Saturday. Game times are set for 12 and 2 p.m. EST. Games are played at Cougar Baseball field on the campus of Cleveland State. Admission is $8 per person per day.