JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two of the best hitting teams in the country match wits at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex Saturday at 1 p.m.
No. 24 Carson-Newman (23-5, 8-2 South Atlantic Conference) and Newberry (17-12, 5-5 SAC) both are top 10 in the country in hits and runs scored this season.
The Wolves have been stout offensively this year. Newberry ranks seventh nationally as a team in doubles with 51, eighth in hits with 252 and 12th in runs scored for 185.
Meanwhile, Carson-Newman has had a marvelous month of March. Not that February was bad at the plate (the Eagles stroked it with a .324 average), but March has just been an insane month offensively. The Eagles are hitting .404 with a .461 on-base percentage. After averaging 6.05 runs per game through 18 games in February, the Eagles are putting up 8.4 runs per game through 10 games in March.
Unsurprisingly, the Eagles are white hot as a team. The only player who isn't hitting north of .350 for March is Brooke Matyasovsky. While she is batting .258 through 10 games in the month, she has still driven in 10 runs, one a game.
The hottest bat belongs to Macauley Bailey. She's hitting a staggering .606 in March with 20 runs driven in. Five Eagles are hitting north of .400 for March - the aforementioned Bailey, Abbi Martin (.500), SieAnna Cameron (.429), Macey Hughes (.423) and Kennady Warder (.406).
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.
Bailey is the country's leader in runs batted in. The Cross Plains, Tenn.-native leads the nation with 44. Bailey leads all players in NCAA Divisions I, II and III for RBI. She has driven in a run in nine of her last 10 games and has 12 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 28 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.
Molly Mattas has been a machine for Newberry. The freshman catch- er ranks second nationally with 14 doubles. She is fifth in the nation and third in the SAC for runs batted in with 37.
First pitch between the Eagles and Wolves is set for 1 p.m. Saturday. Coverage is available on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available for a subscription through FloSports.
