VIDEO: Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – If Carson-Newman (27-15, 12-4 South Atlantic Conference) is to stop a string of doubleheader splits, head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield says the Eagles have to stop being satisfied with just seven solid innings.
A complete game is on the Eagles' 31-year head coach's mind as C-N welcomes Wingate (25-13, 10-6 SAC) for a 1 p.m. first pitch at the Vickee Kazee-Hollield Softball Complex.
"I think of discipline," Kazee-Hollifield said. "We've got talented players, but I don't care how talented you are, if you're not putting yourself in a position to take a good cut on the ball, that goes to the other team. We can't take anything routine for granted. You have to be all in when you play the teams that we have coming up.
"We're a very regimented ball club. But I don't think we come out as hard in game two as we do game one. We have to come out with the same enthusiasm as we have in game ones. We haven't responded well when things haven't gone our way."
After a 10-2 start in league play, Carson-Newman has split back-to-back SAC doubleheaders to teams with below .500 records in Lincoln Memorial and Coker.
The Eagles' margin for error against Wingate will be increasingly slim. The Bulldogs have taken four straight from the Eagles and run-ruled Carson-Newman twice last year 8-0 and 9-0 in five innings.
On the Eagles' current four-game skid against the Bulldogs, they've been run-ruled twice, shut out three times and have only scored one run against Wingate.
Carson-Newman will look to continue to ride Allison Webster's (Charlestown, Ind.) arm. The junior became the first Carson-Newman pitcher since Zoe Heim in 2008 to strike out 200 batters in a single season with an eight-K, complete-game shutout in game one against LMU Wednesday.
Heim fanned a school record 292 that season en route to All-America honors. She's the last pitcher to be named an All-American for the Eagles
Webster will be throwing against Wingate's Sarah Houser, who is third in the SAC in ERA. She has thrown the last four games the Bulldogs have played, including a seven-inning no-hitter of Tusculum back on April 9.
"She's kept people off balance for four years now," Kazee-Hollifield said. "You have to be smart in the batters' box against her and attack the right pitch. She does a very good job of mixing things up."
Webster and Houser have two of the three no-hitters pitched by South Atlantic Conference hurlers this season.
The Eagles bats will look to come to life against a pitcher who has thrown 13 consecutive shutout innings against them.
"Wingate is always an aggressive ball club," Kazee-Hollifield said. "We've got to come out and play disciplined softball both offensively and defensively."
Houser tossed the two complete games last year. The Eagles got a run off her a 3-1 loss in the 2014 South Atlantic Conference tournament on a Jessica Morgan fifth-inning, bases-loaded walk.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.), Sara Kelley and Kelli Hensley all tallied RBI singles off Houser in a 3-1 Eagle victory at The Vick in April 2014.
First pitch between the Eagles and Bulldogs is set for 2 p.m. Saturday. Coverage of the games will be available on the Eagle Sports Network with a free high definition stream at cneagles.com/live.
