JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 24 Carson-Newman (21-5, 6-2 South Atlantic Conference) hits the road to tangle with UVA Wise (4-16, 2-8 SAC) Thursday at 1 p.m. from Cavalier Field.
The Eagles sit a game back of first in the league standings from No. 19 Wingate, who split with No. 23 Lenoir-Rhyne on Tuesday. A sweep would bring the Eagles back on level standing with the Bulldogs.
Carson-Newman is playing exceedingly defensive-minded softball. The Eagles have made just three errors in their last 13 games. A six-game streak was tied with the second-longest error-free streak of softball for Carson-Newman over the last 16 years.
Carson-Newman's .982 fielding percentage is the best in the SAC and the second-best nationally. Only Central Oklahoma has a higher fielding percentage than the Eagles.
Macey Hughes is the 12th player in school history with 20 career home runs. Her next bomb will place her in a tie for 10th on the all-time list with Staci Fish (2000-01) and Katie Pritchett (2015-18) and their 21 home runs. Elayna Siebert (2013-16) sits in ninth place all-time with 22 career home runs.
Freshman Macauley Bailey is the country's leader in runs batted in. The Cross Plains, Tenn.-native leads the nation with 37. She has driven in a run in seven of her last eight games and has 10 games this year where she has drive in multiple runs. Bailey is halfway to Carson-Newman's single-season home run record. Brittany Hefner is the single-season record-holder with 19. Bailey has nine through 26 of Carson-Newman's scheduled 48 regular season games. She ranks ninth in the nation and in the SAC behind reigning national player of the year Kayson Boatner.
Should Bailey get to double-digit home runs, she would join two-time All-American Abby Fiessinger as the only freshman in the history of the Carson-Newman softball program with double-digit bombs in a freshman season.
Carson-Newman has been preternaturally good at finding ways to win close games. The Eagles are 12-3 in games decided by three runs or fewer and 8-3 in games decided by two runs or less. Carson-Newman's nine other wins have all come by five or more runs, seven of those have been via the run rule. Carson-Newman and UVA Wise have split their last two doubleheaders in eerily similar fashion.
The Cavs have won a tight game one, before C-N has blasted away for a run-rule win in the nightcap. C-N has only swept Wise once in the brief eight-game history in the series. UVA Wise shortstop Kara Long has laced 10 doubles to rank eighth in the country. She has hit a double in five of her last six contests. She ranks second in the SAC for the category First pitch between the Eagles and Highland Cavaliers is set for 1 p.m. Thursday. A paid video stream is available through FloSports. Fans can follow along on Twitter @CN_Eagles.
