HICKORY, S.C. – Carson-Newman (24-8, 8-2 South Atlantic Conference) took both sides of a regular season twinbill with Lenoir-Rhyne (24-13, 4-6 SAC) for the first time since the 2002 season Saturday afternoon at Bears Field.
The Eagles dominated the doubleheader, pounding out 20 hits on the afternoon. Carson-Newman won game one 5-1 before taking the night cap 8-0. The game two victory is the second largest margin of victory over a Shena Hollar-coached Lenoir-Rhyne team.
Carson-Newman took five out of six contests against Lenoir-Rhyne in 2009, but split the regular season series. The Eagles won two games against L-R in both the SAC tournament and NCAA regional that season.
"What we did is hit today, played better defense and both pitchers threw extremely well," Carson-Newman head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "Bre Lockett was a difference maker in center taking away some hits."
Both Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) and Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.) went the distance in the circle for the Eagles. Together, they allowed just seven hits to the Bears.
"When your pitching was on like ours was today, it made things so much easier," Kazee-Hollifield said. "They generated a good number of ground balls and a good number of routine fly balls."
Kazee-Hollifield pointed to her clubs attitude as reason for the victories.
"This was a business-like approach," Kazee-Hollifield said. "No one took a play off the entire 14 innings. It's very easy to coach a team when they come out ready to play like they did today. All (assistant coach) Michael Graves and I had to do was direct traffic."
Carson-Newman's bats were active throughout the order, six different players had multiple hits through the series.
"Elayna Siebert set the tone in game one and Talisa put a bat on the ball all game long," Kazee-Hollifield said. "Erin comes in is in attack mode. We were putting a bat on the ball as a team.
Game one: Carson-Newman 5, Lenoir-Rhyne 1
Carson-Newman opened up the scoring in the top of the first. Maryann Hoskins was able to strikeout the side for the Bears, but not before Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) clobbered her seventh homer of the season over the wall in right center to give C-N the opening 1-0 advantage.
The Eagles would pad their advantage in the top of the second. Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) led off the frame with a base hit to left. Defensive miscues for the Bears kept the inning rolling. Both Hayley Burnette (Rossville, Ga.) and Jessica Morgan (Ooltewah, Tenn.) reached on errors by Bears third baseman Jordin Phillips allowed Fiame to come in to score with two out.
Carson-Newman looked to keep the offense rolling in the third, but came up a touch short. Brooke Ramsey (San Mateo, Calif.) nipped a two-out double to right center, followed by a walk from Fiame and Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) getting hit by a pitch. However Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) struck out to end the inning.
Lenoir-Rhyne got its first base hit in the bottom of the third with a two-out Sydney Landreth double to right center, but that sandwiched a trio of groundoouts.
The Eagles loaded the bases again in the fourth and this time brought in a pair of runs. Ramsey was hit by a pitch to bring in one run with two out, then Fiame took first on a base on balls to bring in another and give C-N a 4-0 cushion. Both runs were unearned by virtue of a third error on Phillips in the inning.
The Bears would get their first run of the day in the bottom of the fifth. Back-to-back two out base hits, one from Christina Walker up the middle and another from Landreth to center sent Dakota Keller in from second to make it 4-1 in favor of the Orange and Blue.
Carson-Newman got an extra insurance run in the top of the seventh when Haley Taylor (Strawberry Plains, Tenn.) lifted a ball to right for a double that scored Morgan unearned.
Howard collected the win in the circle for the Eagles to improve to 4-3. She worked the complete game, giving up four hits and one run. She struck out three and walked two.
Maryann Hoskins took the loss for L-R after working the first 3.2 innings of the game. She struckout eight but walked four. She allowed four runs, but only one was earned. Brandi Hole finished the game with three hits and an unearned runs. Carson-Newman saw four batters reach on errors, seven on walks and two more on hit batsmen.
Carson-Newman left 14 on base in game one.
Game two: Carson-Newman 8, Lenoir-Rhyne 0
C-N got the party started offensively in the first with a single from Bre Lockett (Fontana, Calif.) and a sacrifice from Taylor. Siebert reached on a fielding error by the Bears' second baseman to put runners on the corners.
Ramsey brought home the first run of the inning with a single to right. Pritchett grounded out to second to plate Siebert before Erin Stanley (Coeburn, Va.) doubled down the right field line to score two and round out the Eagles' runs for the inning.
Carson-Newman pounced again in the sixth. Three straight singles opened up the frame for Carson-Newman before Ramsey lifted a ball to center that allowed Lockett to tag up and come around for a run.
Fiame then singled to left to plate Taylor to round out the scoring in the inning and give the Eagles a 6-0 advantage.
Carson-Newman wasn't done in the top of the seventh. Hayley Burnette (Rossville, Ga.) reached on a fielding error by the first baseman and came in to score on a Morgan triple to left.
Lockett singled her home on a ball hit to left center and C-N took an 8-0 lead to the bottom of the seventh.
Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.) shut the door to finish off the Bears with two punchouts in the final frame.
Kranz went the distance to move to 9-4 on the year. She worked the complete game, three-hit shutout, the Eagles first shutout win over Lenoir-Rhyne since 2009.
Brandi Hole took the loss after working the first 1.1 innings for the Bears. She falls to 11-9. She gave up four runs, only one of which was earned and four hits. Hoskins worked the final 5.2 innings, surrendering 10 hits and four runs, three of which were earned.
Carson-Newman returns to the Vick Monday for a 2 p.m. doubleheader with Erskine. Coverage will be available on the Eagle Sports Network with a free HD stream at cneagles.com/live.
