Vickee Kazee-Hollifield interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (26-8, 5-3 South Atlantic Conference) outscored Mars Hill (14-12, 2-6 SAC) 26-24 in a pair of riveting, one-run games Wednesday afternoon at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex.
The Eagles walked off in game one in ten innings 12-11 before hanging on in game two 14-13. The 27 runs in game two are the third most combined runs in a game in Carson-Newman softball history. The Eagles and Tennessee Wesleyan combined for 30 runs in a 27-3 C-N win in 1992; the Eagles beat Belmont Abbey 28-0 in 1996.
C-N is 206-1 all-time when scoring more than 10 runs in a game. The Eagles allowed more than 10 runs for the 26th and 27th times in program history. These are the third and fourth occurrences where a team has plated more than 10 runs on the Eagles and C-N has managed to pull out a victory.
Caitlyn Lance (East Ridge, Tenn.) provided the first game heroics blasting a ball up the middle to give the Eagles their second walk-off victory of the season. Audrey Woodby (Knoxville, Tenn.) went four-for-six for the series with five RBI. She had game-tying hits in both contests.
Cassie Lyons (Knoxville, Tenn.) had four hits in eight at bats and matched Woodby with five runs batted in.
Jamie Hockaday went six-for-eight at the plate with nine RBI for the Lions.
Game one: Carson-Newman 12, Mars Hill 11 (ten innings)
Carson-Newman rallied twice, once from five runs and again from four runs down, to pull out a 12-11 victory over Mars Hill in ten innings. The contest was the longest for C-N since a 10-inning game at USC-Aiken last year.
The Eagles were down 6-1 after 3.5 innings when they exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Woodby got the rally rolling with a single up the middle to score Lance from third. Back-to-back singles from Jessica Morgan (Ooltewah, Tenn.) and Kelli Hensley (Knoxville, Tenn.) brought the Eagles within two. Lyons flied out to center on a SAC fly to get C-N within a run.
The Eagles would roar past the Lions with a two-run fifth. Woodby doubled to right center to score Brittany Hefner (Talbott, Tenn.) and Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) to push C-N ahead 7-6.
However, Mars Hill would score five unanswered between the sixth and the seventh innings to take an 11-7 lead and force C-N to bat in the bottom of the seventh.
That worked to the Eagles favor. Lance and Brittany Bass (Duluth, Ga.) both singled to lead off the inning before Siebert walked to load the bases. Woodby was hit by a pitch to bring in the first run before Bass scored on a wild pitch. Haley Taylor (Jefferson City, Tenn.) punch hit for Morgan and tied the game with a rocket shot up the middle.
Lance won it for the Eagles with her single up the middle on the first pitch she saw in the 10th. She scored the international-rule runner Sara Kelley (Ooltewah, Tenn.) from third. She had advanced to that base on a passed ball in the previous at bat.
Kalyn Davis (Danville, Ky.) collected the win in relief for the Eagles. She tossed 8.2 innings and surrendered 10 hits and seven runs, four of which were earned. She improved to 12-3 on the year. Shelby Culler took the loss in relief for Mars Hill. She was online for the save before the Eagles walked off with the win.
Game two: Carson-Newman 14, Mars Hill 13
The Eagles gave up the second most runs and hits in school history, but still managed to hang on for the 14-13 win in game two. The Lions pounded out 17 hits, but it would be a pair of errors that proved to be the difference.
After Mars Hill jumped out 3-0 on the Eagles in the second, C-N plated five in the second and four in the third to take a 9-4 lead through three innings. A three-base throwing error by Mars Hill pitcher Allie Carrigan on a slow roller allowed Morgan to reach safely in the second and two runs to come across. Hensley made the Lions pay more when she knocked an infield single to third to score Morgan. Those three unearned runs would prove to be the difference.
The Lions jumped ahead 12-11 in the sixth after a pair of four-run innings. A Hockaday smoker through the left side to plate two highlighted the scoring in the sixth for the Lions.
However, for the second straight game, the Eagles would counter. C-N knotted things up on an RBI single up the middle by Woodby and took the lead on a Morgan infield single to third. A Lyons single to center would give the Eagles the requisite two-run buffer to hang on for the win in regulation.
Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) started, but earned the win when she re-entered in relief of Davis. She threw 116 pitches across five innings. Howard gave up nine runs, six of which were earned. Taylor Hussey took the loss in relief for the Lions to fall to 5-5 on the year.
The Eagles return home Saturday to face nationally-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne at 1 p.m. Coverage will be available on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live.
