JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Coming into Wednesday's doubleheader, No. 25 Carson-Newman (24-6, 9-6 South Atlantic Conference) and Lincoln Memorial (24-15, 8-4 SAC) sit a game back and two games back, respectively of first-place Wingate in the SAC standings.
Both squads will look to make up ground on the Bulldogs (who has two games in hand over both teams), when the Eagles and Railsplitters play two at 1 p.m. at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex.
While Carson-Newman leads the all-time series 42-22, LMU has dominated the ledger of late. Lincoln Memorial has won 10 straight against Carson-Newman, the second-longest winning streak against C-N of any foe. The Eagles haven't beaten the Railsplitters since a 12-5 win in game one of a doubleheader in 2018. Kennesaw State holds the record for most consecutive wins over Carson-Newman, handing C-N 16 straight losses from 1991-2001.
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 .413 with a .483 on-base percentage. After averaging 6.05 runs per game through 18 games in February, the Eagles are putting up 9.16 runs per game through 12 games in March. Carson-Newman has put up double-digit runs in seven of its last eight games.
Unsurprisingly, the Eagles are white hot as a team. The only player who isn't hitting north of .340 for March is Brooke Matyasovsky. While she is batting .282 through 12 games in the month, she has still driven in 12 runs, 1.0 a game. The hottest bat belongs to Macauley Bailey. She's hitting a staggering .590 in March with 24 runs driven in. Five Eagles are hitting north of .400 for March - the aforementioned Bailey, Abbi Martin (.500), SieAnna Cameron (.512), Macey Hughes (.419) and Kennady Warder (.421).
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 secon in the country in runs batted in. The Cross Plains, Tenn.-native has 48. Bailey leads all players in NCAA Divisions I, II and III for RBI. She has driven in a run in 11 of her last 12 games and has 13 games this year where she has driven 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 10 through 32 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. Bailey is the second Eagle freshman (Abby Fiessinger is the other) to homer 10 times in her first season on the banks of Mossy Creek.
LMU pitcher Emma Frost has 114 strikeouts this season to rank 19th nationally and third in the SAC, three behind Morgan Beeler and Lauren Rakes of Lenoir-Rhyne.
First pitch between C-N and LMU is set for 1 p.m. Wednesday. Coverage is available on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live. A paid video subscription can be found via FloSports at cneagles.com/FloSB.
