VIDEO: Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (22-8, 6-2 South Atlantic Conference) hits the road Saturday to tussle with Lenoir-Rhyne (24-10, 4-4 SAC) at 1 p.m. at Bears Field.
The Eagles will be trying to keep its hands on first place in the South Atlantic Conference standings. C-N is tied with Anderson and Wingate for the league lead at 6-2.
"We've always had a good rivalry with them," head coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "We won't make this one any bigger than the others because all our conference games are challenging."
C-N leads the all-time series with the Bears 42-27, but L-R has made a run of things this decade. The Bears are 11-2 against C-N since 2010 after the Eagles took two from L-R in 2009 to make the college world series.
Lenoir-Rhyne pitcher Maryann Hoskins has taken over first place on the SAC strikeout leaderboard. She's fanned 128 this year, the 13th best total nationally. Hoskins has fanned 10 or more on four occasions this year. She had seven strikeouts in the teams' meeting last year
"She's getting a lot of strikeouts for her team, and that's lets their defense relax a little," Kazee-Hollifield said. "She's going to keep you off balance and try to get you out of the zone. We'll have to go after good strikes."
Carson-Newman has been impressive offensively this year and has two of the best bats in the SAC. Bre Lockett (Fontana, Calif.) leads the league with a .506 batting average. Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) follows with a .443 tally.
Since moving to shortstop, Siebert is hitting .741 and in that she matched the school record for doubles in a single game with three against Mars Hill.
"She's capable of doing that," Kazee-Hollifield said. "But now is the right time to be turning that on. She'll be pivotal for us down the stretch."
The matchup features the two winningest coaches in SAC history do battle. L-R's Shena Hollar is second all-time with a .717 win percentage, while Kazee-Hollifield is first at .747.
First pitch from Bears Field is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday. Live stats will be available at lrbears.com. Follow @cnathletics on Twitter for live game updates.
