VIDEO: Vickee Hollifield Interview
HICKORY, N.C. – Carson-Newman (39-11, 16-4 South Atlantic Conference) laid claim to the 2017 South Atlantic Conference regular season championship and the top seed in next week's SAC championships with a split Saturday afternoon at Lenoir-Rhyne (44-9, 16-4 SAC).
The Eagles took game one 3-2 to earn a share of their 15th regular season South Atlantic Conference title. The Bears joined them about two hours later with an 8-3 win in the night cap.
"This means so much," head softball coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield said. "No matter what the age of your team is, you want to win. We wanted to put these kids in a position to win a championship. Today they did that. They won a championship that was the result of a lot of hardwork."
Carson-Newman earns the one seed for the league tournament thanks to their sweep of third-seeded Newberry. The Bears and Wolves split earlier this season.
This marks the third time that Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne have shared the regular season conference championship. They did so in 2000 and 2008.
The title is Carson-Newman's second in three seasons.
Ashlyn Cooper (Friendsville, Tenn.), Cheyenne Boles (Knoxville, Tenn.), Taylor Scott (Huntington, W.Va.) and Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) all had multi-hit efforts on the afternoon for the Eagles.
Cooper's three RBI from a home run that clinched game one were a career high.
"Sometimes that's all it takes," Kazee-Hollifield said. "I'm glad that I went with my gut with her today. She hadn't been hitting of late, but she had shown some stuff in practice the last few days. All the credit goes to her though. She takes a 3-2 pitch and delivers when we needed her to."
Carson-Newman snapped the longest active win streak in the Southeast Region at 13 games for L-R in game one. Then the Bears repaid the favor to the Eagles in the nightcap. The Eagles seven-game win streak was tied with North Georgia for the longest streak in the region at that point.
With the win, Carson-Newman advances to the SAC championships as the one seed. The Eagles will take on Queens in the opening round of the league tournament.
The Eagles limited the Bears to a 2-for-11 effort with runners on base in game one before L-R responded with a 5-for-14 effort with runners in the nightcap.
GAME ONE: Carson-Newman 3, #16 Lenoir-Rhyne 2
It took until the fourth inning, but the Eagles brought out some big bats to grab the lead. Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) reached on a fielding error at short, then Cheynne Bole (Knoxville, Tenn.) singled to center field.
That set the table for Ashlyn Cooper (Friendsville, Tenn.). The sophomore belted her third home run of the season, just clearing the fence in right. The homer was just the second of the season for C-N off a 3-2 count.
Lenoir-Rhyne got on the board in the sixth. An RBI double to right center for Sarah Kenley and an RBI single to left for Madison Poe got L-R within a run with one out. The Eagles got a pair of pop ups to end the sixth and leave the tying run in scoring position.
The Eagles made short work of the Bears in the seventh though to seal the win and a share of the league title. Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) generated a pair of pop ups to the right side of the infield before a groundout to first ended in.
Rinus got the win to improve to 22-5 on the year. She struck out five and walked two. Rinus allowed five hits and both runs that scored against her were earned.
Sydney Miller took the loss to drop to 13-5. She gave up a hit an inning in the complete game. Only two of the three runs she allowed were earned. She struck out one and didn't issue a walk.
Cooper, Taylor Scott (Huntington, W.Va.) and Boles all had multi-hit efforts for the Eagles.
GAME TWO: #16 Lenoir-Rhyne 8, Carson-Newman 3
Lenoir-Rhyne got out on the front foot by bringing every player to the plate in the second and scoring and scoring four runs.
The Bears loaded the bases without an out. L-R then got back-to-back bases loaded walks from Erin Boone and Christina Walker to grab a 2-0 lead.
Sarah Kenley drove in the third run of the frame with a sacrifice fly to right before Sydney Landreth completed the scoring with a single to left to drive in one and make it 4-0 Bears.
The Bears padded that lead in the fourth with a three-run frame. Two runs scored on a Kenley double to the right center. Kenley batted in the first, then the second scored as Kenley and Walker over ran bags to get themselves into a pickle. However, Walker managed to use speed to sprint around home plate, avoid KaraLynne Levi's (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) tag and score the run by tapping the backside of the plate.
The third run of the inning scored when Cooper was ruled to have trapped a line drive in right off the bat of Madison Poe. That made it 7-0.
Carson-Newman got two runs back in the road half of the fifth when Levi got hit with the bases loaded and Katie Pritchett (Ringgold, Ga.) worked a bases loaded walk to pull C-N within five, 7-2.
The Bears got a run back off a Dakota Keller home run down the left field line in the fifth. It was her seventh homer of the season and came with two out off a 1-0 pitch.
Carson-Newman got the bases loaded in the seventh and scored a run on a bases loaded walk for Boles, but a strikeout ended the game with the final margin at 8-3.
Carson-Newman left the bases loaded on three occasions in the doubleheader and stranded 11 for the game.
Allison Webstet (Charlestown, Ind.) took the loss to fall to 17-6. She allowed three hits and four runs in 1.1 innings of work. Rinus pitched the final 4.2 innings, surrendering five hits and four runs, three of which were earned.
Ty Triplett got the win in relief for L-R to improve to 11-2. Brandi Parks picked up her second save of the season.
Check cneagles.com for a start time of Carson-Newman's SAC tournament game with Queens later Saturday night.
