Missed opportunities haunt C-N as Eagles exit SAC tourney with 5-3 loss to Anderson
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Carson-Newman (36-13) left 12 runners stranded as Anderson rallied for a 5-3 decision to eliminate Carson-Newman, the regular season champions and top seed, from the South Atlantic Conference tournament.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
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2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
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2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | X | 5 | 7 | 2 |
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Carson-Newman (36-13) left 12 runners stranded as Anderson rallied for a 5-3 decision to eliminate Carson-Newman, the regular season champions and top seed, from the South Atlantic Conference tournament.
The Eagles, ranked fourth in the most recent region rankings, must wait to selection Sunday to find out their NCAA tournament fate. Anderson advances to face LMU Saturday.
Carson-Newman got things rolling in the first to grab the game-opening lead. A walk and back-to-back base hits loaded the bases for the Eagles with one out. Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.) singled through the left side to plate Bre Lockett (Fontana, Calif.). Talisa Fiame (Pacifica, Calif.) then reached on a fielder's choice to the circle that allowed the Trojans to retire Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) as she came home.
Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) was able to keep the inning alive and score another run when she reached on an error by the Trojan's Jessica Neidigh at second. When the dust cleared, it was 2-0 C-N.
Anderson quickly countered in the bottom of the first. Just like the Eagles, the Trojans loaded the bases. Chelsea Jones slapped a single to center that scored two and tied the game.
Carson-Newman broke that tie in the fourth. Lockett walked with one out, then moved to second on a Siebert infield single. A Brooke Ramsey (San Mateo, Calif.) fly out moved Lockett over to third and enabled Toppel to push her across with a double down the left field line to make it a 3-2 ball game in favor of the Eagles.
The Eagles lead would be short-lived. Neidigh connected on a leadoff home run to center to even the score 3-3 to start off the bottom of the fifth.
Carly Hurtado gave Anderson a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth off a two-out, two-RBI base hit up the middle.
Carson-Newman tried to rally in the seventh, but could only muster a single base runner thanks to an error by the Trojan's shortstop. A ground out to the circle ended the Eagles tournament championship hopes.
Cassie Lyons took the loss for C-N to fall to 2-1. Lauren Rudesheim collected the win for the Trojans.
Check cneagles.com and follow @cnathletics on Twitter for up-to-date information about a possible NCAA tournament run for the Eagles.
