Fifth-seeded Eagles open SAC tourney soirée against Newberry
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fifth-seeded Carson-Newman (28-14, 13-11 South Atlantic Conference) begins its quest for a league-record 13th South Atlantic Conference tournament title with an opening round game against fourth-seeded Newberry Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Wingate Softball Complex.
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VIDEO: Michael Graves Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fifth-seeded Carson-Newman (28-14, 13-11 South Atlantic Conference) begins its quest for a league-record 13th South Atlantic Conference tournament title with an opening round game against fourth-seeded Newberry Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Wingate Softball Complex.
The double elimination tournament is split in two sites for the opening rounds. Carson-Newman and Newberry are with regular season champion Wingate and eighth-seeded Anderson at the Bulldogs home park. Second-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne is playing host to the three, six and seven seeds – LMU, Catawba and Limestone, respectively – at Bears Field. The winners of the two opening tournaments will meet for a three-game championship series May 3-4.
"We really liked that single elimination tournament playing in the championship game four of the last five years," head softball coach Michael Graves said with a chuckle. "It'll definitely be a challenge, there are so many good teams to play in this thing. The good thing is that we are familiar with all of them."
For all of the meetings between Carson-Newman and Newberry, very few have come in SAC tournament play. This will be the first time since 1999 that Carson-Newman has faced the Wolves in the league's tournament. C-N is 0-1 all-time against Newberry all-time in SAC tournament action. The Wolves handed Carson-Newman its first loss of the 1999 tournament 3-2.
Carson-Newman begins its quest for a league-record 12th tournament championship. Carson-Newman has played for the title in four of the last five tournaments, last winning in back-to-back years in 2017-18. Anderson and Lincoln Memorial prevailed over Car- son-Newman in the 2019 and 2022 events.
After hitting an astounding .392 in the month of March, Carson-New- man'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 five straight games before breaking out with a 6-5 win over Lenoir-Rhyne on April 23.
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 6.51. C-N has given up nine or more runs in five of the 10 games its played this month. Carson-Newman has given up more earned runs this month (58) in 10 games, than it did for the entire month of February (43) when it played 18 games.
Macey Hughes sits in ninth place in Carson-Newman history for ca- reer home runs with 23. 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 58. She has driven in a run in 17 of her last 24 games and has 17 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 1.38. Bailey's 58 RBI this season sit in seventh in school history. Two more and she matches Sara Kelley (2014) for sixth all-time.
Macey Hughes has moved into the top 10 all-time for RBI. She is tied with Rebecca Eldredge (1998-2001) who sits in ninth with 133. Mary Shealey (2009-12) is in eighth with 138. Hughes is five away from equaling her output.
First pitch between the Eagles and Wolves is set for 1 p.m. Thursday. A video feed is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/flosb.
