VIDEO: Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Interview
VIDEO: Lindsay Dean Interview
VIDEO: Talisa Fiame Interview
VIDEO: Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (8-4) got back on the right side of the win/loss column Wednesday afternoon at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex. The Eagles took a pair of five-inning, run-rule wins from Bluefield State (0-6), 15-4 and 8-0.
"It all starts in the center circle and Lindsay and Alli did a great job," head coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "They both generated a lot of ground outs and strikeouts. That's what you want our of your pitching."
Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) fanned eight, one off her career high, en route to a win in game two, while Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) collected seven strikeouts in game one.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) both went 5-for-6 at the plate. Fiame knocked in five runs through the doubleheader, while Siebert drove in three.
Dean and Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.) both homered for the Eagles.
While the Eagles' offense exploded for 23 runs between the two games, Carson-Newman's pitching staff held the Blues to just three hits on the day without giving up an earned run.
Game one: Carson-Newman 15, Bluefield State 4 (five innings)
Carson-Newman got the party started in the first with a five-spot. All five of the Eagles runs came with two out and were aided by a quartet of Bluefield State errors.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) got the party started with her 12th career triple, a one-hopper to the wall in right center.
She came in to score when Cheyenne Boles (Knoxville, Tenn.) reached on an error on a muffed thrown by Bluefield State first baseman Emily Day. That extended the inning, as did a Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) strikeout that the catcher Chante Cargill dropped.
Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) drove in Pritchett and Boles with a single to left. Then she came around to score herself on a pair of errors by the leftfielder Chelsea Duncan.
Lindsay Dean's (Coeburn, Va.) second home run of the season went over the wall in left and put the Eagles up 5-0.
After Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) struck out the side in top of the second, the Eagles got back to work offensively.
Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.) extended her hitting streak to a career best seven games. She came into score on a Siebert single to short. Shon Jordan (Hermitage, Tenn.) walked and scored on a passed ball.
A Fiame single brought in Siebert for an unearned run and pushed the lead to 8-0. Dean drove in a run with a single to left to extend the lead to 9-0. Ashlynn Cooper (Friendsville, Tenn.) rounded out the scoring in the frame with an RBI base hit to left, and the Eagles were up 10-0.
The Eagles continued the offensive onslaught in the third. Jordan laced a double to left center to plate Toppel and then Siebert clocked her third hit of the day with a base hit to right to make it 12-0 as Jordan scored.
Janelle Benzick (Virginia, Beach, Va.) got a two-RBI single in her first official plate appearance as the Eagles made it a third consecutive inning with five runs scored.
The Blues were able to put four across in the fourth thanks to a quartet of Carson-Newman errors.
Webster collected the win (4-3), working the game's first four innings and striking out seven before ceding the final frame to Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.). Kranz worked a perfect fifth before the game ended via the run rule.
Siebert was a home run shy of the cycle. She tallied her fourth, four-hit performance of her career. Fiame reset her career high by driving in four runs.
Game two: Carson-Newman 8, Bluefield State 0 (five innings)
Game two featured a slower start offensively for the Eagles. Jordan reached on an error at second and moved two bases on a pair of passed balls.
That allowed Siebert to tally another RBI with a sacrifice fly to right, putting the Eagles in front 1-0.
The Eagles tacked on a crooked number in the fourth. Boles reached on an error at second on a dropped pop up before Dean brought her in with a double to center.
Back-to-back singles from Madison Floyd (Lake Park, Ga.) and Webster scored another run before Toppel cleared the bases with an inside-the-park, three-RBI home run. It marked Carson-Newman's first inside-the-park homer since Jessica Morgan poked one through a shift against Indiana Wesleyan nearly a year ago to the date.
In the fifth, Talisa Fiame knocked a one-out triple, the second of her career, into the gap in right center field to bring in a run and give Carson-Newman a chance to end the game early via the run rule.
Fiame then ended the game by scoring on a wild pitch.
Fiame and Toppel both collected multi-hit days, with Toppel extending her career-long hit streak to eight consecutive games.
Lindsay Dean got the win (4-0), coming a strikeout away from her career high with eight Ks. She was also a Cobb third-inning base hit away from a perfect game. Rosanne DeVries took the loss for the Blues to fall to 0-2.
The Eagles hit the road this weekend for their first true road games of the season. The Eagles are at USC Aiken Saturday before travelling to Clark Atlanta Sunday. Follow @cnathletics for updates of both games on Twitter.
