Carson-Newman is looking to recapture the magic that enabled the Eagles to win seven-consecutive SAC games before falling to a Coker club 5-3 in the nightcap of a doubleheader Saturday. The win was the Cobras fourth in their last 27 contests.
LMU has split back-to-back SAC series. Queens run-ruled LMU Saturday 11-3 before the Railsplitters rallied for a 6-3 win in the second game of the twin bill.
The Royals jumped all over Lincoln Memorial in Saturday's matinee, collecting 16 hits with four home runs. Queens scored five runs in the third before ending the game early with a four-run fifth. The Lady Railsplitters flipped the script in game two, though, blasting three home runs to salvage the split. LMU scored its last four runs of the game off of home runs.
Carson-Newman's pitching has been a-ok over the last three weeks. The Eagles have only allowed three teams to score more than five runs in a game against them (Georgia College, Catawba and Coker). Carson-Newman's pitching staff gave up seven extra-base hits Saturday against Coker, six doubles and a triple.
Meanwhile, the Eagles' offense has been searching to find its footing. Aside from the 10-run outburst against Coker in game one, Carson-Newman has only cracked double-digit runs one other time since March 19.
The Eagles will look to get started against LMU's senior right-hander Samantha Smith, who has had an up-and-down season in the circle; she improved to 7-8 by going the distance against Queens in game two.
Smith has provided a nice boost for the Railsplitters offensively, after going homerless through the first 55 at-bats of her career, Smith has now hit three home runs in her last six plate appearances.
LMU head coach Natalie Layden enters Wednesday's twin bill two wins away from career win No. 100, as she has amassed a 98-86 record in her five-season tenure with the Lady Railsplitters. It would require a rare feat for Layden to reach that mark, though, as Lincoln Memorial has not swept a doubleheader from Carson-Newman since joining the South Atlantic Conference prior to the 2007 season. In fact, LMU hasn't taking two from the Eagles since 1998. Carson-Newman head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield won her 300th South Atlantic Conference contest Saturday against the Cobras.
Carson-Newman freshman Ashlyn Cooper (Friendsville, Tenn.) is a doubleheader removed from her first career multi-hit performance. The freshman hit .429 last week and has the second hottest bat on the team behind reigning SAC Player of the Week Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.)
Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) continues to lead the South Atlantic Conference in home runs. The sophomore has 13. She needs six more in the Eagles' next eight games to tie Brittany Hefner for the program's single-season home run record. Kat Rives of Lenoir-Rhyne holds the SAC single-season record with 23, set in 2010. Dean ranks third in the league standings this season with 36 runs batted in.
Allison Webster's (Charlestown, Ind.) ERA in South Atlantic Confernce play is barely above the grass line. She has a 1.16 ERA and 77 strikeouts in South Atlantic Conference play. The ERA ranks third in the SAC, the strikeouts are second. Webster's next K will be her 200th of the year. Webster is the reigning South Atlantic Conference and Tennessee Sportswriter's Association state pitcher of the week.
First pitch between C-N and LMU is set for 2 p.m. Check lmurailsplitters.com for live stats and follow @CNathletics on Twitter for in-game updates.
