JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (27-13, 12-10 South Atlantic Conference) will try to head into the SAC Championships on a strong note and close out the regular season in fine fettle when it travels to No. 20 Lenoir-Rhyne (33-9, 15-7 SAC) for a 1 p.m. doubleheader Sunday.
Carson-Newman has dropped five straight games against ranked opposition after run-ruling then No. 23 Lenoir-Rhyne in the semifinals of last year's SAC Championships.
Since Lenoir-Rhyne handed Carson-Newman a 17-0 defeat in the 2018 Southeast Regional, the worst loss in school history, Carson-Newman is 6-1 against the Bears. The Eagles have won four consecutive games in Hickory.
Sunday's twinbill has seeding at stake for C-N and the Bears. Carson-Newman can finish as high as third and as low as eighth in the SAC standings. Meanwhile, Lenoir-Rhyne has locked up the two seed and will be one of the two host sites (the other is regular season champion Wingate) for next week's SAC tournament championships.
After hitting an astounding .392 in the month of March, Carson-Newman's offensive numbers have returned to earth. C-N is batting .303 in the month of April. Unfortunately, C-N's run-production has been hampered as well. Top 10 nationally through the first two months of the season in runs per game, C-N is posting just 4.75 runs per game after averaging 7.2 through the first 32 games of the year. The Eagles have been held to three runs or fewer in four straight games.
Meanwhile, Carson-Newman's pitching stats have unfortunately hit the stratosphere. C-N was 15-3 in February while boasting a 2.66 team ERA. In April, that number has bulged to 7.38. C-N has given up nine or more runs in five of the eight games its played this month. Carson-Newman has given up more earned runs this month (52) in eight games, than it did for the entire month of February (43) when it played 18 games.
Carson-Newman has lost four straight. The Eagles' current four-game skid is just the program's eighth, four-game losing streak in its 38-year history. Carson-Newman will seek to avoid matching the school-record for consecutive losses of five – set by the 2012 (Wingate, Augusta (twice) and Lenoir-Rhyne (twice)) and 2019 teams (Lincoln Memorial (twice), Catawba (twice) and Anderson) Carson-Newman has never lost six straight games.
Macey Hughes sits in ninth place in Carson-Newman history for career home runs with 22 - tied with Elayna Siebert (2013-16). Next up on the all-time list is Mandy Stevens, who had 24 from 2005-08.
Freshman Macauley Bailey is the second in the country in runs batted in. The Cross Plains, Tenn.-native has 56. She has driven in a run in 16 of her last 22 games and has 16 games this year where she has driven in multiple runs. The single-season SAC and school record for RBI in a season is 75, held by Carson-Newman's Brittany Hefner (2013). Bailey is also second nationally in RBI per game with 1.40. Bailey's 56 RBI this season sit in seventh in school history. Four more and she matches Sara Kelley (2014) for sixth all-time.
Macey Hughes drove in eight runs last week to move into the top 10 for a career with 131. Eighth on the all-time list seems within striking distance for Hughes. Rebecca Eldredge (1998-2001) sits in ninth with 133, while Mary Shealey (2009-12) is in eighth with 138.
First pitch between the Eagles and Bears is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday. A video stream is available for a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/FloSB.
