JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman softball cranks open its 2015 season – its 30th in existence – with a roadtrip to Belmont, N.C., to face off with Belmont Abbey Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m.
The matchup is the lid lifter for the 2015 season for both teams.
Carson-Newman looks to improve to 25-2 all-time in opening day games. C-N's only opening day losses came in 1997 to Division I Radford 2-0 and in 2011 at Bellarmine 2-0.
"I really want to start out of the gate fast and finish fast too," Carson-Newman head coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "I don't know why we've been so good early other than that we've emphasized our preparation and minimizing mistakes. Early on our game plan is to manufacture runs and get ground balls."
Belmont Abbey represented the Eagles' opening day opponent in 2001 when C-N swept the Crusaders 15-0 and 9-2 and in 2013 when C-N cruised to 13-0 and 9-0 wins over Belmont Abbey.
The Eagles have dominated the all-time series with the Crusaders with a 24-2 lead heading into the 27th meeting between the schools. Belmont Abbey is the only team to give up 20+ runs on two occasions to C-N.
The 28 runs C-N scored on the Crusaders in the first meeting between the two teams in 1996 are the most all-time.
Aside from the school record for runs scored, C-N has seen school records fall against the Crusaders for doubles (6 in 1996), RBI by Whitney Hickam (8 in 2007) and total bases by Whitney Hickam (10 in 2007).
Since losing to Belmont Abbey 4-3 in the second game of a 2006 doubleheader, the Eagles have outscored BAC 89-8 on a 9-game win streak, including 4-1 and 5-0 victories over BAC last season.
Carson-Newman is mostly new for the 2015 season. The Eagles replace 518 starts in the infield with the loss of Sara Kelley, Brittany Hefner and Cailtyn Lance. Vickee Kazee-Hollifield and Michael Graves have responded with a signing class of 11 players. That is the largest signing class since the inaugural year of the program back in 1985.
The Eagles are led by preseason all-SAC selection Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) and second baseman Jessica Morgan (Ooltewah, Tenn.), who is likely to make her 146th career start Wednesday.
The Crusaders are led by junior pitcher Samantha Jacobs. Jacobs was the first Crusader pitcher since 2006 to earn all-conference honors as the Salisbury, North Carolina product earned a spot on the Conference Carolinas second team last year.
Jacobs finished third in the league in strikeouts with 120, averaging 7.14 per game, as she pitched 117 and two-thirds innings with a 3.21 ERA.
In conference play, she struck out 54 batters in 48 and two-thirds innings with a 2.16 ERA.
She fanned a career-high 13 batters in the 3-0 win over Erskine on February 26.
"She was able to make us go after poor pitches last year," Kazee-Hollifield said. "We chased a lot of stuff out of the strike zone. We'll have to do a much better job being disciplined against her."
She was largely able to keep Carson-Newman's potent offense in check last season. She struck out nine Eagles in the Crusaders 4-1 loss and limited Carson-Newman to just six hits. Carson-Newman got nearly all of its offensive production against Jacobs on a three-run Kelley home run.
"We had to manufacture runs against them," Kazee-Hollifield said. "Those scores aren't indicative of how close those games were. I'm looking for more consistent play in the pitching circle. They had base runners all day long. We were fortunate to get timely outs last year. We cannot allow a hit and a walk an inning like we did last year. That's what I'm looking for from day one this year."
Carson-Newman went 10-0 against Conference Carolinas competition last season.
First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. from Belmont, N.C. Wednesday. Live stats will be available at abbeyathletics.com.
