VIDEO: preseason hype video
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman will open up its 36th season of softball within the friendly confines of The Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex Wednesday at noon with a visit from Concord.
Carson-Newman is 32-3 all-time in season openers when it beat Florida Tech 10-2 to open the 2022 season. It got C-N back on the winning track to start seasons after King had snapped a nine-year win streak on opening day, 8-2, to kick off 2021. The 10-0, run-rule win over the Panthers was C-N's first such win to start a year since throttling Converse 14-0 to open 2020. Carson-Newman's only three season-opening losses have come to King (2021), Bellarmine (2012) and Radford (1996).
Carson-Newman is 19-1 in home openers after collecting 5-2 and 5-3 wins over Lees-McRae on Feb. 9 last season. King had spoiled 18 straight home opening wins in 2021 with an 8-2 win over the Eagles.
Macey Hughes opens her junior year sitting on 18 career home runs. Two more and she becomes the 12th player in Carson-Newman softball history with 20 career jacks. Staci Fish (2000-01) and Katie Pritchett (2015-18) sit in a tie for 10th on the all-time list with 21.
Eastern Connecticut State transfer Brooke Matyasovsky brings 42 career home runs with her down from Orange, Conn. The grad transfer has the third most home runs in Division III among active players when she left. She enters this season with the third-most in NCAA Division II. By comparison, Sara Kelley holds the Carson-Newman career record for bombs with 35 (we should note, that Carson-Newman has the deepest park in the Southeast Region at 220 to center and 210 down the lines).
Carson-Newman hasn't won a game at home against Concord since 2015. The Mountain Lions swept a 2017 doubleheader at The Vick by twin 3-1 scores. Carson-Newman won five of the first six games in the series before Concord won four straight.
The Eagles run-ruled the Mountain Lions last season 9-1 at the Bearcat/Fleet Invitational in Greenwood, S.C. behind a trio of bases-loaded walks.
Concord was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain East South Division this year. The Mountain Lions were 1-5 against South Atlantic Conference teams last year, with the lone win coming against Coker.
Carson-Newman and Concord are set for first pitch at noon. Coverage is available on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available for a fee through FloSports.
