JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The accolades continue to file in for Kolton Casson after an impressive freshman season. The starting pitcher was named Division II Conference Commissioner’s Association Southeast Region Pitcher of the Year on Monday morning, while relief pitcher Eli Norris was selected to the All-Southeast Region second team.
Casson is Carson-Newman’s third all-region pitcher in the past four seasons and the first first-team all-region pitcher since Brayden Coe in 2021. The rookie pitcher becomes the program’s 16th pitcher to earn all-region honors. Of those 16, he is just the seventh to be named first-team all-region as well.
D2CCA Pitcher of the Year and first team all-region adds to a laundry list of accolades for the freshman. Casson was a two-time SAC pitcher of the week and TSWA pitcher of the week during the season. He earned All-SAC First team honors and was named the conference’s freshman and pitcher of the year in the same season, becoming the first ever individual in the South Atlantic Conference to garner two individual awards in one season. He was also named a NCBWA first team all-region pitcher at the end of this past week.
As a freshman, the Benton, Tenn native has a 2.35 earned run average in 95.2 innings of work. His ERA is the sixth lowest in a season and second lowest by a C-N starting pitcher. Those 95.2 innings are the sixth-most in a single-season in program history. The innings have come across 15 starts, tied for the fifth-most in one season in C-N baseball history. In his 15 starts, Casson was 13-1, including wins in his first 11 starts of his collegiate career. The 13 wins are tied for the most wins in a single season in school history and are the most in DII this year.
Casson had six complete games as a rookie, tied for the second-most in program history. He went the distance in three straight outings, with two of those performances being 12 and 13 strikeout efforts. Casson had six straight starts in which he allowed one run or less. In the month of March, he made five starts and won them all while also posting a 0.84 ERA.
Despite letting a lead-off batter reach at a .371 clip on the year, opponents hit .199 with runners on base, .187 with two outs and .212 as a right-handed batter. He did not yield more than eight hits in any game on the year and pitched at least seven innings in more than half of his starts.
Norris earns his first career honor by being named second team all-region by D2CCA. It’s the second straight season that C-N has a relief pitcher recognized as one of the top bullpen pitcher in the Southeast Region. Grif Hughes was a D2CCA second team all-region pitcher in 2024 and Hunter Harritan was a NCBWA second team all-region arm. Norris is C-N’s 17th pitcher in program history to honored regionally.
In his first season as C-N’s closer, Norris became a reliable ninth inning arm for the Eagles. The closer finished 2025 eighth nationally with ten saves, the second-most in the SAC as well. He made 19 appearances, posting a 1.80 ERA with 20 innings of work. Norris allowed just four earned runs and struck out 27 batters. The Ringgold, Ga native struck out multiple batters in eight of his 19 appearances, only pitching more than an inning on four occasions.
His first three appearances all resulted in saves and he started the year with five scoreless innings over his first four outings. In the middle of March, Norris earned saves in five consecutive outings. That was part of a stretch in which he did not allow a run over in eight straight appearances that totaled 8 1/3 innings. Â
2025 D2CCA Baseball All-Southeast Region Team
First Team
P – Rijnaldo Euson, Francis Marion
P – Kolton Casson, Carson-Newman
P – Bradley Wilson, Georgia College
P – Matty Brown, North Greenville
RP – Hayden Simmerson, Catawba
C – Cole Stanford, Lenoir-Rhyne
1B – Charlie Bussey III, Francis Marion
2B – Brett Bloomquist, North Greenville
3B – Cole Hales, Catawba
SS – Lane McLean, Mount Olive
OF – Mackenzie Wainwright, Lenoir-Rhyne
OF – Andrews Opata, North Georgia
OF – Grant Sherrod, Lander
DH – Sal Carricato, Lenoir-Rhyne
UT/P – Landon Lucas, UNC Pembroke
UT – Eli Maddox, Flagler
Second Team
P – Payne Stolsworth, Catawba
P – Dominic Puccetti, Lander
P – Spencer Cipro, Belmont Abbey
P – Graham Edwards, Young Harris
RP – Eli Norris, Carson-Newman
C – Jaylen Mack, Coker
C – Julian Sauger, Shorter
1B – Phillip Ard, North Georgia
2B – Cole Laskowski, Lenoir-Rhyne
3B – Drew Bray, Young Harris
3B – Steven Smith, Emory & Henry
SS – Kasten Harvey, Lincoln Memorial
OF – Luke Hatcher, Young Harris
OF – Owen Blackledge, Lenoir-Rhyne
OF – Caleb Burr, Belmont Abbey
DH – Kade Smallwood, Young Harris
UT/P – Gage Shaver, Southern Wesleyan
UT – Jon Howard, Mount Olive
Player of the Year – Mackenzie Wainwright, Lenoir-Rhyne
Pitcher of the Year – Kolton Casson, Carson-Newman