Rinus takes freshman, pitcher of the year accolades; five Eagles honored by league office
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman softball pitcher Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was named the South Atlantic Conference’s Freshman of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, while four other Eagles earned All-SAC accolades, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon.
VIDEO: Lacie Rinus Interview
VIDEO: Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman softball pitcher Lacie Rinus (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was named the South Atlantic Conference's Freshman of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, while four other Eagles earned All-SAC accolades, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon.
Shortstop Kristen Toppel (Roanoke, Va.), pitcher Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) second baseman Abby Fiessinger (Benton, Ky.) and catcher KaraLynne Levi (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) all received honorable mention all-conference status from the league.
Vickee Kazee-Hollifield was also named the league's coach of the year for a 12th time in her 32-year tenure at Mossy Creek.
"I'm only the recipient of this because of what our team did," Kazee-Hollifield said. "The credit goes to them. And then the credit goes to the Lord. I'm thankful to be here at Carson-Newman where coaching can be a ministry for our softball program. Everything goes back to God, and the kids, this isn't about me."
Rinus is the just the second player in the league's history to take both Freshman and Pitcher of the Year honors in the same season. She joins Catawba's Carly Tysinger (2013) as the only other player to receive that distinction.
"My team has made this fun," Rinus said. "I just know that I want to play for them. I didn't expect to do this well this year. It was tough to adjust to the whole college experience, but it's been fun learning how to juggle things."
She becomes the second Carson-Newman pitcher to earn the league's top honor for hurlers, joining Megan Elliot, who did it in 2005 (please note that the league's pitcher of the year was first awarded in 2004, so C-N legends like Heather Randolph, Amy McMahon and Marci Mitchell never had a chance to compete for it).
"She has given us a chance everytime we've played," Kazee-Hollifield said. "She's a bit ahead of her time because of her demeanor. She has the skill level, don't get me wrong. However, she is always so poised and in control of a game. She is no-nonsense and she doesn't get rattled. She takes it personally if someone gets a hit off her. Then she's going to work that much harder to get those next outs."
Rinus is the fifth Carson-Newman player recognized as the league's freshman of the year and the most recent since Elliot was lauded in 2003. She joins Elliot and SAC Hall of Famer Marci Mitchell as the only two C-N pitchers to receive the accolade.
The Murfreesboro, Tenn.-native led the conference in strikeouts (196), batting average against (.205), earned run average (1.31) and wins (22). She ranked second in the league in shutouts with seven. Her strikeout total is the 10th best figure in the nation while her seven shutouts are seventh.
On three occasions this year, Rinus garnered AstroTurf South Atlantic Conference and Tennessee Sportswriters Association Pitcher of the Week accolades. She was lauded with recognition as the Fastpitch News National Pitcher of the Week on April 5th. She did not allow an earned run from March 22 – April 5th, a streak of 35 consecutive innings.
Rinus pitched a season-high 12 strikeouts against Erskine on Feb. 22. She has hit double digit strikeouts on seven occasions this season. Perhaps more impressive is her strikeout to walk ratio, which sits at 6.75:1. There have been 13 starts this year where Rinus has not issues a base on balls.
At the plate, Rinus has also proved to be an asset. She hit .371, the second highest average among regulars on the team. Her 12 doubles and three triples are both second on the team. She hit an inside-the-park home run against Brevard. She has collected 12 multi-hit games this year, the third most on the team. She has a staggering seven, three-hit efforts, which is tied for the second most in a single season for a Carson-Newman player in the last seven seasons.
Toppel earns All-SAC honors for a second straight season at shortstop. The junior hit .301 with 41 hits in 136 at bats. Toppel has dropped down a team-best 13 sacrifice hits, she is second in the league in that regard.
Toppel also swiped 24 bases in 26 attempts and ranks third in the conference in pilfers this season.
The Roanoke, Va.-product produced 10 multi-hit and four multi-RBI efforts. Included in that is Toppel's first career four-hit game, which she did at King on Feb. 11. Carson-Newman went 27-5 this year when she scored a run.
Toppel was a black hole defensively, especially in conference play. She only made one error at short.
Toppel is one of the most dogged players at the plate to deal with. She faced off against a 22-pitch at-bat and a 19-pitch at-bat against Young Harris in game one in back-to-back appearances at the plate. She fouled off 17 and 15 pitches respectively, While records for longest at-bats and number of foul balls hit in an at bat are not kept, here's some perspective. As of 2017, the longest recorded Major League Baseball at-bat happened in 1998 when Bartolo Colon of the Cleveland Indians threw 20 pitches to Ricky Guiterrez of the Houston Astros. Guiterrez took two strikes and three balls and fouled off 13 pitches before striking out on the 20th pitch.
Toppel struck out looking and walked in the two lengthy at-bats. She accounted for 38 percent of the pitches that Nikkie Kovalsy tossed in the game. She spent a total 19:20 at the plate, accounting for 15.3 percent of the total game time of game one of the doubleheader.
Webster went 17-6 in her senior season with a 2.49 ERA and a pair of shutouts. The Charlestown, Ind.-native is top five in the conference in strikeouts and wins. Webster has fanned 135 batters on the season and has struck out more than 350 people in her career.
Her top outing game against Bluefield State when she rifled her second no-hitter of her Carson-Newman career and struck out a season-high 12 batters. Webster also came close to firing a no-hitter against Newberry on April 1, only allowing two hits on the day.
At the plate, Webster batted .280 with home runs against Queens and Anderson.
Fiessinger became the fifth Carson-Newman softball player in the last seven seasons to hit better than .400. Her .415 average is the sixth highest in the South Atlantic Conference. She hit a team-best eight home runs, five triples and 66 base hits. She is 19 hits away from breaking into the top seven for a single season in conference history.
The Benton, Ky.-native started the year on an 18-game hitting streak, the fourth longest in school history.
Her top single-game effort came March 27 against Brevard. She tied the single-game school record with two triples against Tornados. The two triples were a part of a four-hit day for Fiessinger. Combined with a home run and a single, she had 11 total bases on the day, the second most in school history. She drove in seven RBI against Brevard, including six in one inning. The seven runs batted in runs batted in are the third most in school history.
She has scored 50 runs this season, 12 away from the eighth most in league history.
Levi instantly transformed herself into one of the best defensive catchers in the conference. Levi has thrown out 13 runners who tried to steal on her, the most of any catcher in the Southeast Region. She has caught 46 percent of runners who have tried to steal on her, also the top mark among catchers in the Southeast.
She and Rinus have combined to throw out an absurd 73 percent of runners who have attempted to steal on that battery in particular. Levi has only made one error behind the plate. Her .997 fielding percentage is the highest among players in the conference with more than 100 total chances.
At the plate, Levi hit .312 with 11 doubles, a triple and two dingers. The 11 doubles are the third most on the team. She has had 10 multi-hit performance and seven multi-RBI efforts. She had a four-hit day against King and drove in a career-best three runs against Georgia College.
All five of Carson-Newman's All-SAC performers will be on display Thursday at 3 in the SAC tournament against Queens. Follow @cnathletics on Twitter for updates to that game.
