Hollifield, Lady Eagles Open 2012 season on Thursday at St. Andrews
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles open the 2012 season with the hopes of extending their South Atlantic Conference record streak of seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and capturing their 14th regular season conference title.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles open the 2012 season with the hopes of extending their South Atlantic Conference record streak of seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and capturing their 14th regular season conference title.
Carson-Newman opens its 2012 season on Thursday against St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, N.C. The Lady Eagles open their home schedule on Sunday against Bellarmine University. First pitch is at 1 p.m. at the Lady Eagle Softball Complex.
Coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield enters her 27th season as the Lady Eagles' head coach. The SAC's all-time wins leader picked up her 900th career victory last March and sits at 927 career victories entering the season. She'll have to build a lineup from a roster filled with 10 underclassmen, including seven freshmen.
If recent history is any indication of what lies ahead for 2012, the Lady Eagles started slow a year ago, only to rally to go 14-4 in SAC play and reach the Southeast Regional Final.
Carson-Newman will ride the right arm of 2011 national wins leader Mary Shealy as far as it can toward accomplishing two of its preseason goals. Shealy is one of two seniors on the Lady Eagle roster and no one meant more to a single team than Shealy did to C-N a season ago.
Shealy, the 2011 SAC Player of the Year, had 38 of C-N's 41 pitching victories last season. She was 38-15 in 51 starts as Carson-Newman overcame a slow start to advance to its seventh straight NCAA Tournament. She finished the year 2.18 ERA and 184 strikeouts.
The senior will also factor heavily into a Lady Eagle offense that returns five of its top seven hits producers from last season. Shealy batted .299, finishing the season with 12 home runs, seven doubles, and 41 RBIs.
Shealy, along with senior outfielder Kim Whaley and junior catcher Bri Shoemake, gives the Lady Eagles a proven and veteran trio of all-conference selections to lead what is an otherwise youthful Lady Eagle roster.
Shoemake started 57 games for the Lady Eagles as a sophomore. She earned Louisville Slugger All-American honors, batting .397 with 11 home runs, 77 hits, and 41 RBIs. The first-team preseason All-SAC selection threw out 12-of-31 runners on stolen base attempts last year.
Whaley, one of two seniors in the Carson-Newman outfield, will start in left field. The first team All-SAC selection started all 59 games in the Lady Eagles' outfield last season. She batted .381 with 61 hits and a .466 on-base percentage during her junior season.
Fellow senior Cassidy Skeen will patrol centerfield for C-N. Skeen played only 14 games as a junior before missing the rest of the season with an injury. She may the true wild card in the Lady Eagle lineup after stealing seven bases and amassing 11 hits in only 14 games a year ago.
Sophomores Caitlyn Lance and Sara Kelley are the two remaining starters from last season's squad. Lance batted .279 in starting 52 games at first base for the Lady Eagles. She also delivered a game-winning double in a SAC Tournament win against Wingate.
Kelley will make the move to second base for her sophomore season. She stated all 59 games at third base as a freshman, batting .297 with 51 hits and four home runs.
Junior Cassie Elliott will fill the third starting spot in the outfield. A junior college transfer, Elliott gives the Lady Eagles a big bat from the left side of the plate.
A pair of Chattanooga-area freshmen are likely to crack Hollifield's starting lineup on opening day. Shelby Robertson, a Ringgold, Ga. native, will start the Lady Eagles opener at shortstop, while Jessica Morgan, an Ooltewah product, will slide into the spot at third base.
Freshmen pitchers Amanda Chastain, Madison Burnett, and Bethany Davis will follow Shealy in the pitching rotation, competing for starts and innings.
Freshman Alyssa King will give the Lady Eagles depth on the infield, while Brittany Bass will see time in the outfield.
The Lady Eagles are picked second in the SAC preseason Coaches' Poll, behind Lenoir-Rhyne.
Carson-Newman will play one of the toughest schedules in the region and the country in 2012. It face every NCAA Tournament team from the Southeast Regional a season ago.
Non-conference matchups against North Georgia and Armstrong Atlantic State at the Mid-South Tournament in Spartanburg, S.C. and a home showdown with USC Aiken(March 6) highlight the first week in March.
Home dates with conference rivals Wingate (March 17) and Lenoir-Rhyne (March 24), along with a non-conference date with Georgia College (March 28) are part of a brutal two-week stretch at the end of March that also include trip to Augusta State (March 19) and Tusculum (March 27).
The South Atlantic Conference Tournament is April 19-22 in Greeneville, Tenn. at Tusculum College.
