HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Bre Lockett (Fontana, Calif.) notched her 11th and 12th multi-hit games of the season to guide Carson-Newman (16-6, 1-1 South Atlantic Conference) to a doubleheader split with Coker (13-12, 1-1 SAC) Monday afternoon at Saleeby-Stokes Field.
"Coker came out ready to play and we couldn't overcome one bad half inning in game one," head coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "We had too many people go hitless in a row in game one. They did a good job making us chase pitches. It's disappointing for us to let one go away."
Coker got the win in game one 3-0 before the Eagles broke through in game two for a 4-1 win.
"The difference between the games was Sarah Howard's pitching in game two," Kazee-Hollifield said. "She didn't allow many base runners, then Kranz did a great job shutting down the Cobras late in that game."
Lockett was 4-for-6 on the day. She has hit successfully in 15 of the Eagles' last 16 games.
Carson-Newman left 16 runners stranded between the two contests.
This marks the fifth straight season where the Eagles have split their conference opening doubleheader. The Eagles haven't swept a conference lidlifter since beginning the 2010 conference campaign by taking two from Catawba.
Game one: Coker 3, Carson-Newman 0
A three-run home run proved to be the difference for the Cobras in game one as Ashley Gallman lifted a dinger over the fence in left centerfield to guide the Cobras to the 3-0 win.
Carson-Newman wasn't without its chances though. The Eagles left the bases loaded in both the second and fourth innings.
In the second, Bre Lockett (Fontana, Calif.) and Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) both nipped back-to-back singles to right field. After a fielder's choice, Hayley Burnette (Rossville, Ga.) took a ball to center to juice the bases. However, Jessica Morgan (Ooltewah, Tenn.) struck out swinging to end the inning.
Meanwhile, in the fourth, a pair of two-out singles from Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) and Burnette loaded the Eagles up. However, Coker second baseman Taylor Barcomb made a wondrous unassisted groundout to retire Morgan at the first base bag and get the Cobras out of the frame with no damage done.
Coker became just the second team this season to outhit the Eagles, doing so 7-6.
The Eagles struggled getting the timely hit during the contest. Carson-Newman saw just one of its seven leadoff batters reach base. The Eagles were 3-for-10 at the plate with two outs.
Carson-Newman's five through eight hitter combined to go 6-for-12 at the plate; however, the rest of the lineup was hitless. Burnette and Lockett both went 2-for-3 at the dish.
Coker's Tabitha Allen collected the six-hit shutout victory to improve to 9-7 in the circle. Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.) took the loss to fall to 8-4. She struck out six and walked three in defeat.
Game two: Carson-Newman 4, Coker 1
The teams swapped scoreless frames through the first four innings of the contest before the Eagles broke through in fifth. Burnette began the frame with a single before advancing to second on a Morgan sacrifice.
That set up Lockett to do some damage. The junior lifted a ball over the head of the right fielder for an RBI triple. Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.) rounded out the scoring in the frame for the Eagles by lifting a deep fly ball to right to plate Lockett off the sacrifice.
Coker got a run back in the bottom of the frame. Katelyn Szupello lifted a ball into no-man's land in shallow center field that dropped outside the reach of three Eagles converging on the bloop shot. Szupello tallied an RBI as Courtney Stiles raced home.
Carson-Newman got a run back in the top of sixth to re-extend the lead to two runs. After a Haley Taylor (Strawberry Plains, Tenn.) double and a Howard single, Carson-Newman had a pair of runners in scoring position. Fiame ripped a ball through the left side to score Taylor and make it a 3-1 ballgame in favor of the Eagles.
Coker threatened in the bottom of the frame with two in scoring position and no one out. However, Kranz entered the game in the circle in relief and proceeded to strikeout three straight Cobras to end the threat.
The Eagles added one more insurance run in the seventh when Kranz touted a single to left to drive in the first run of her Carson-Newman career.
Howard got the win in the circle for the Eagles after tossing five innings of five-hit, one-run ball. She improves to 1-1 on the season. Kranz came on in relief and collected the save – the first of the season for any Eagle. Tabitha Allen took the loss in relief for the Cobras.
The Eagles return home Wednesday for a conference doubleheader with Brevard. First pitch is at 2 p.m. Coverage will be available on the Eagle Sports Network with a free high definition stream at cneagles.com/live. Carson-Newman's Thursday doubleheader with Lees-McRae has been cancelled.
