HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Carson-Newman (30-19) got to 30 wins for an 18th straight season and advanced in the winner's bracket of the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship with a 3-1 win over fifth-seeded Lincoln Memorial (23-27) Thursday evening at Byerly Park.
"We c ame out ready to hit the ball," head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "Our three, four, and five batters came out and hit the ball. Elayna, Pritchett and Dean really helped us today. Andi had an incredible game in center field and robbed them of some base hits. Then of course, Alli did what she does. We'll have to continue to do this if we're to have succes against L-R tomorrow."
Carson-Newman was being one-hit by LMU starting pitcher Samantha Smith through the game's first three innings. The Eagles finally got to her in the fourth.
Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) led off the inning with a base hit to left center before Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) reached on a fielder's choice.
Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) took that as an opportunity to plaster C-N's first home run since April 9 and her first in 74 at bats, since March 9 at Concord.
The dinger drove in two and gave C-N a 2-0 advantage.
Carson-Newman added to its lead in the fifth. Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.) doubled to left center with one out. Shon Jordan had a productive groundout to move Toppel into scoring position, then Siebert drove her home with a base hit up the middle to make it 3-0.
Ashlea Hunter blasted a two-out home run to left field for the Railsplitters in the top of the seventh to break up Allison Webster's (Charlestown, Ind.) shutout. However, Webster got a groundout to end the game.
Siebert went 2-for-3 with an RBI as the only Eagle with a multi-hit performance on the day. Pritchett drove in the two runs with her bomb.
LMU outhit the Eagles 7-6. The Railsplitters were led by Lindsay Cecil, who went 2-for-2 with a walk, and Rebecca Burchette, who was 2-for-3.
Webster got the win for the Eagles to push her record to 20-11. She walked two and struck out five.
Samantha Smith took the loss for LMU to fall to 11-10. She allowed six hits and three runs, all of which were earned, with a walk and a strikeout.
The Eagles advance to face Lenoir-Rhyne in a winner's bracket game Friday at 12:30 p.m. The Railsplitters fall into the loser's bracket to play Anderson at the same time.
