Bo Ausmus selected to preseason All-SAC second team

Junior second basemen Bo Ausmus was tabbed a second team member of the preseason All South Atlantic Conference by the league Monday morning.

“I don’t really use it as motivation,” Ausmus said of the accolade. “Hopefully we are having the same interview at the end of the season.”

Coming off of a sophomore campaign where he led Carson-Newman in batting average (.331), home runs (8), RBI (38), triples (4), slugging percentage (.602) and hits (55), Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) is trying to build off of his success.

“I’ve been working in the offseason,” Ausmus said about his approach. “I’ve been working on my game and plate discipline, trying to cut down on my strikeouts to help the team.”

Ausmus is the first Eagle since 2012 to be on a preseason team. Catcher Mason Guymon and outfielder Lucas Mohon were second team selections of the league in 2012.

The team is coming off a year where they labored through a 12-game losing streak before a clean slate in the conference tournament brought out the true potential of a tight knit group

“Out of all my years here, this is definitely the best team chemistry we’ve had,” Ausmus said about the experience of this year’s squad. “We plan on building on that. We all started out young. We are a lot wiser than we have been.”

Ausmus and company take to the field for the first time in 2014 this weekend for a three-game series at GRU Augusta. The Eagles take on the Jaguars Saturday at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and conclude the series with a 1 p.m. first pitch Sunday. You can catch the audio broadcast on cneagles.com/live with coverage beginning ten minutes prior to first pitch for each game.

2014 SAC Baseball Preseason All-Conference Team

First Team

C – Josh Clark, WU

1B – Albert Baur, NEW

2B – Julio Zubillaga, CAT

SS – Evan Rogers, MHU

3B – Ryan Cranmer, NEW

OF – Thomas Spitz, WU

OF – Ivan Vieitez, L-R

OF – Keaton Hawks, CAT

DH – Eric Barbieri, NEW

SP – Jonathan Rosenberger, NEW

SP – Olen Little, WU

SP – TJ Rinoski, WU

RP – John-Austin Shepard, TC

Second Team

C – Chas Goodwin, NEW

1B – Fico Kondla, COK

2B – Bo Ausmus, C-N

SS – Shea Bell, COK

3B – Blake Prince, WU

OF – Paul Kronenfeld, CAT

OF – Jermale Paige, NEW

OF – Blake Houston, CAT

DH – Scott Miller, LMU

SP – John Tuttle, CAT

SP – Andrew Goot, COK

SP – Ben Currie, WU

RP – Landon Beck, AU