BREVARD, N.C. – Carson-Newman (20-12, 6-2 South Atlantic Conference) rode the arm and bat of junior Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) to a pair of wins over Brevard (11-23, 1-7 SAC) Tuesday afternoon at the BC Softball Field.
Webster notched a pair of complete-game victories on the day and drilled a three-run home run in game two to help Carson-Newman come back to complete the sweep, 4-0 and 4-2.
"Alli Webster, Alli Webster, Alli Webster," head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "She powered us today. The pitch she hit for a home run, it felt like she had the team on her back with that swing. We had one bad inning of defense. But even when we were down, we never stopped fighting and I was very proud of them for that."
She had a combined 15 strikeouts between the two games and only allowed seven hits across 14 innings of work in the circle.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) had a multi-hit performance while Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) drilled her SAC-best 11th home run of the season.
Game one: Carson-Newman 4, Brevard 0
Carson-Newman cracked the scoreboard first and did so with some major assistance from Brevard. Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) reached on a dropped fly by the left fielder that enabled her to reach third with no one out. After a pop up to third and a line drive out on a bunt to that base as well, Donna Ryan (Orlando, Fla.) managed to reach on a fielding error by the Tornado's third base man that brought Fiame in to give the Eagles the lead.
All the while, Alli Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) continued to be her normal dominant self in the circle. Through the first five innings, she faced the minimum three times, and only gave up a base hit in the second on a Paige Atkison leadoff single to center.
Carson-Newman added insurance to its lead in the sixth when Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) clobbered her league-leading 11th home run to center field to lead off the frame.
Dean's dinger was her third leadoff bomb in either the sixth or seventh inning in the Eagles' last three doubleheaders.
Carson-Newman got stuck in a bit of a jam in the sixth defensively, but Webster worked her way through it. Kinny Davis and Lauren Parker each hit one-out singles to first and center, respectively.
A line out to right moved Davis to third before Webster walked the cleanup hitter Atkison. Webster then sat down Ricki Kuhn to get out of the bases-loaded jam.
The Eagles made the Tornados pay for leaving the bases loaded by bringing more runs across in the seventh. Ryan and Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.)led off the inning with base hits on ground balls to the left side of the infield.
A pass ball moved the pair into scoring position. Then Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) drove in Ryan with an RBI ground out to second before Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) tallied a run-scoring base hit to left to push the Eagles' lead to 4-0.
Webster then retired the side in order in the seventh to cement her third complete game shutout of the season. The win moved her to 11-6 on the year. She struck out nine in the outing and surrendered one walk and three hits.
Jamie Hrobak took the loss for Brevard (8-13), pitching the first six innings before giving way to Kuhn who tossed the final frame. Hrobak gave up five hits, two runs, one earned and struck out six.
Siebert went 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI. Brevard did not register a two-out base hit while five-of-seven Eagle leadoff batters reached base successfully.
Game two: Carson-Newman 4, Brevard 2
Brevard generated the best initial salvo of offense in game two. Hrobak led off the third inning with a single up the middle and moved to second on a Lauren Parker sacrifice. A Brittan Miller single up the middle gave the Tornados runners on the corners.
Kinsey Parrish then reached on an RBI-fielder's choice that plated Hrobak and saw Miller make it to third on a throwing error by Toppel at short.
An Atkison single to center drove in Miller for an unearned run and a 2-0 lead for Brevard.
Carson-Newman managed to get a run back in the fifth inning. Delaney Brown (Knoxville, Tenn.) laced a pinch-hit single to short with one out. A two-out Toppel single to left and a Shon Jordan (Hermitage, Tenn.) base on balls loaded things up.
However, Jordan's walk was a strange one that caused some havoc and allowed Smith, who reentered on the base paths for Brown, to score. Jordan checked her swing on ball four. Brevard catcher Hanna Huckabee didn't realize there were two outs and threw down to third with Smith and Toppel moving on the pitch.
Huckabee's throw skyrocketed into left and allowed Smith to come home for C-N's first run of the day.
Carson-Newman would be a bit more forthright with its run-scoring abilities the next inning. Fiame reached on a fielding error and Pritchett was plunked to give the Eagles a pair of base runners with one out. That set the stage for Webster to help out her own cause.
The junior ripped an 0-1 pitch to left for her first career dinger, a three-run blast that put Carson-Newman ahead 4-2.
Brevard would not go quietly into the night, however. Hrobak was hit by a pitch to start the seventh, then moved to second on a Parker infield single to third. Miller laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the tying run into scoring position.
Webster then tallied her sixth K of the day with a strikeout of Parrish and got Atkison to line out to right to end the game.
Webster pushed her record to 12-6 with the victory. She scattered four hits and a pair of bases on balls against six punch outs.
Hrobak (8-14) was charged with a complete-game defeat for Brevard. She allowed seven hits, four runs, two earned, with a walk and five strikeouts.
Webster had the only three runs batted in on the day for the Eagles in game two.
C-N remains on the road Wednesday at Erskine. First pitch between the Eagles and Flying Fleet is at 2 p.m. Live stats will be available at erskinesports.com. Follow @cnathletics on Twitter for in-game updates.
