VIDEO: Michael Graves Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Winners of five straight and the highest scoring team in the country, Carson-Newman (10-2) makes its way back to Mossy Creek for its own home tournament – the Eagle Invitational.
This marks Carson-Newman's first invite since hosting Davis & Elkins, Lees-McRae and Indiana Wesleyan in an impromptu tournament brought on by loads of snow fall in late February 2015.
"We learned a lot about our team last weekend," Carson-Newman head softball coach Michael Graves said. "We learned that we can handle cold weather, so I'm not too worried about playing at 10 a.m. when it's supposed to be pretty chilly tomorrow. King always has a scrappy team that's well coached. We probably know a bit more about them than we do West Virginia State. But anytime you can go beat UNC Pembroke as they did, that's an impressive win."
Carson-Newman will open play Friday morning at 10 by playing King (2-2). The Eagles conclude play Friday at 2 p.m. with West Virginia State (1-1). The Tornado and Yellowjackets play one another at noon Friday.
Kurb Side Grillin will be set up at the softball field Saturday selling burgers and sandwiches.
Player concludes Saturday. The Eagles play back-to-back at 10 and noon against WVSU and King in that order. The six-game slate wraps up at 2 p.m. Saturday with the Yellowjackets and Tornado.
Carson-Newman's offense has been loaded for bear in 2022. The Eagles lead the country in doubles (33), triples (8) and hits (136). Carson-Newman ranks in the top 10 in scoring (3rd - 93 runs), sacrifice flies (3rd - six) and stolen bases (5th - 33).
Leah Sohm leads the nation in hits with 25, and somehow, the lefty slapper ranks fourth in the country in total bases with 34. Sohm is one of four Eagles in the top 10 in the country in knocks. Emily Harris ranks third with 20, while SieAnna Cameron and Hayden Dye are tied for seventh with 18 apiece.
"They are so fast, and more than just being fast they are intelligent base runners," Graves said. "You don't have to tell them to take the next base, they are always looking for it. At the start of the year, Coach Toppel had to talk me off a ledge about not having as much pop in our bats. It's certainly working for us now, and even with that, Emily and SieAnna are both swinging away and banging doubles off the wall."
The Eagles have three in the top five nationally for doubles. Emily Harris is second in the country with eight while Hayden Dye and Macey Hughes are tied for fourth with six each.
Carson-Newman's run-producing capability has come from being elite with runners. Leah Sohm (.550), Natalie Corbin (.455) and Emily Harris (.452) are all hitting north of .400 with runners in scoring position.
"I just watch Emily in practice," Graves said. "People don't understand how powerful she is with a bat in her hands. She has a powerful bat when she slaps, forget about her swinging away. She's capable of putting it over our 220-foot fence."
When the Eagles have a runner on third with less than two out, they score that run 65.4 percent of the time. Hayden Dye is an absurd 10-of-12 (.833) in those situations, while Emily Harris is 8-of-11 (.727). Carson-Newman has eight players who are scoring that run at least 50 percent of the time. Nobody produces the run fewer than 33 percent of the time (and those two players are both 1-of-3).
Carson-Newman's pitching staff has also been pretty darn good with runners on base. Opponents are hitting just .119 (8-of-67) off Sara King and .180 (9-of-50) off Syerra Rogers with runners on base.
These are Carson-Newman's first meetings with West Virginia State in 13 years. The Eagles swept a doubleheader with the Yellowjackets in 2008 4-2 and 5-2 before WVSU took two from C-N in 2009 5-2 and 8-5.
Carson-Newman has won 11 straight non-conference home games. The last non-SAC team to beat the Eagles at home was King, who did so 8-2 to start the 2021 season. After Carson-Newman won 10 straight in the series from 2013-2018, C-N and King have split their last six meetings. The Eagles lead the all-time series 23-4.
All six games will be broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live.
