VIDEO: Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fourth-seeded Carson-Newman (29-19) opens up the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship in Hartsville, S.C. against a familiar foe in the fifth-seeded Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters (23-26) Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
The Eagles and LMU swapped shutouts in a doubleheader split 15 days ago in Harrogate. The Eagles won game one 3-0 before the Railsplitters rallied for an 8-0 decision in the nightcap.
"The slate is clean," head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "You have to be excited about that opportunity to win four straight. That's the goal and something to work for. We played them very recently so we know we have a tough battle. I just hope we can play more like we did in game one against them."
This is just the fourth time in school history that Carson-Newman has headed into the South Atlantic Conference tournament as a four seed. The last time was 2012. The Eagles lost the first game of the tournament to Tusculum before winning three straight. The Eagles were eliminated that year a game shy of the championship contest 2-0 by Anderson.
Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) won the league's home run crown by belting 13 home runs. She's the first league leader in home runs for the Eagles since Brittany Hefner hit a school record 19 in 2013.
Carson-Newman's season has been a home run sandwich this year. The Eagles only hit five home runs in the month of February before erupting to hit 27 bombs in the month of March. The Eagles have connected on just three dingers in April, with no homers since Apr. 9
The Eagles enter the tournament with a 4-6 record over their last 10 games. C-N had split four straight league doubleheaders prior to a sweep at the hands of league champion Lenoir-Rhyne in the regular season finale.
Carson-Newman's offense has taken a turn for the worse over the last month of the season. After batting .283 and slugging .447 with 27 home runs in 24 games in March, the Eagles have hit .229, slugged .321 and accounted for just three home runs in 14 games in April.
Carson-Newman will continue to rely on Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) and her arm. Webster is 19-11 this season with a 1.99 ERA and 241 strikeouts in 204.1 innings of work. Webster completely baffled the Lady Railsplitters in game one of their regular-season series, allowing just three hits while striking out eight in a complete-game shutout.
The Railsplitters are led by a player who didn't appear on the All-SAC teams. Catcher Jennifer Moose is one of the hottest hitters currently operating in the South Atlantic Conference. She enters the SAC tournament riding an eight-game hitting streak with multiple hits in five of her last seven games. She went 4 for 7 with four runs, a double, a home run and five RBI in that doubleheader against Brevard. She is sporting a .435/.468/.841 slash line in SAC play, ranking second, fourth and first in those categories, respectively.
With a win, C-N would advance to play the winner of No. 1 Lenoir-Rhyne and No. 8 Anderson on Friday at 12:30 p.m. A loss would send the Eagles into the loser's bracket, though, where they would have to face the loser of the L-R/Anderson game at 12:30 as well.
Follow @CNathletics on Twitter for in-game updates. Live stats will be available at cneagles.com.
