Sweet-swinging Eagles, Indians collide Saturday
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two of the top hitting teams in the country will match wits when 21st-ranked Carson-Newman (19-5, 4-2 South Atlantic Conference) and Catawba (14-8, 2-2 SAC) meet at 1 p.m. inside the friendly confines of the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 1 |
|
|
0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 0 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 14 | 1 |
|
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | X | 10 | 11 | 0 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two of the top hitting teams in the country will match wits when 21st-ranked Carson-Newman (19-5, 4-2 South Atlantic Conference) and Catawba (14-8, 2-2 SAC) meet at 1 p.m. inside the friendly confines of the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Softball Complex.
Carson-Newman ranks in the top 20 nationally in three offensive categories. C-N is ninth in sacrifice flies with 10. The Eagles rank 14th in runs scored with 151 and 19th in total hits with 201.
Catawba has been an extra-base hitting machine. The Indians are sixth nationally with 45 doubles. Savanna Balderston and Riley Tucker are both ninth nationally as individuals with nine two-base hits.
Carson-Newman won 38 of the first 40 meetings with Catawba, but the series has been fairly balanced since 2006. Catawba leads the ledger 18-17 since the Eagles' won 28 straight over 12 years. Neither team has won more than five straight in the series over the last 17 years.
Carson-Newman is playing exceedingly defensive-minded softball. The Eagles have made just three errors in their last 11 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 .980 fielding percentage is the best in the SAC and the fourth-best total nationally. However, among teams who have played double-digit games, the Eagles only trail defending national champion Rogers State.
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 36. She has driven in a run in six consecutive 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 24 of Carson-Newman's scheduled 48 regular season games. She ranks seventh 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
