Quartet of Eagles earns preseason all-league laurels
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman’s softball program placed four Eagles on the preseason All-South Atlantic Conference teams, the league office announced Wednesday morning.
VIDEO: Mary Vandergriff Interview
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Carson-Newman's softball program placed four Eagles on the preseason All-South Atlantic Conference teams, the league office announced Wednesday morning.
Mary Vandergriff (Chattanooga, Tenn.) was named to the first team as an outfielder while Carmen Holt (Lawrenceburg, Ky.), SieAnna Cameron (Alcoa, Tenn.) and Macey Hughes (Corryton, Tenn.) made the second team as a designated player, outfielder and first baseman, respectively.
Vandergriff was especially good in league play last year. In SAC matchups, Vandergriff hit .391 with six doubles and three home runs, including a walk-off blast against Mars Hill. The sophomore from Soddy Daisy, Tenn. set a career high against Lenoir-Rhyne when she produced her first three-hit day. She also drove in a season-best three runs against the 23rd-ranked Bears. Overall, Vandergriff hit .316 with 11 two-base hits and three home runs. She had a team-leading seven sacrifice bunts.
After appearing in just 10 games in her first three seasons at C-N, Holt cemented herself as an all-conference designated player. The senior hit .294 last year with seven doubles and a triple while driving in 27 runs. She had 12 multi-hit games last season, including her first three-hit day against UVA Wise (March 22) – a day in which she also drove in four runs for the first time in her career.
Cameron makes her first appearance on an all-region team after a season that has been hampered by a wrist injury which caused her to miss two and a half weeks of action. Even with that, Cameron has the fifth-highest batting average in the league, hitting .401 with 55 hits. She also stroked eight doubles and legged out five triples.
Carson-Newman was 21-1 last year when Cameron scored a run. She hit safely in 16 consecutive games last season to match the fifth-longest hitting streak in program history. All told she had 14 multi-hit efforts and seven multi-RBI games. Cameron entered the region tournament having hit safely in eight of her last nine games.
Hughes was eighth in the country with 64 RBI last season. Hughes had five games last year with at least four RBI and three with five or more. Hughes was 11 RBI away from Brittany Hefner's (2013) school and SAC record 75 RBI for a single season. Hughes had the fourth most RBI in a single season in school history.
Hughes hit 14 home runs in 2022, she had the 17th double-digit home run season in school history and was tied for third in school history for a single season with Elayna Siebert (2015).
The sophomore hit .403 with 16 doubles, two triples and 14 blasts. She also stole five bases.
Hughes was named SAC Player of the Week on Feb. 26. Hughes' prodigious slugging gives her the first SAC Player of the Week honor of her career and the first for an Eagle since Shannon Smith was recognized on March 16, 2021. The Gibbs product was 5-for-13 at the plate last week with 13 RBI in a 4-0 week for the program.
That amounted to a 1.385 slugging percentage and a .385 batting average. All five of Hughes hits were for extra bases. She slashed a double against Lander and smoked two home runs against both Erskine and Emmanuel. Hughes crushed back-to-back three-run blasts in consecutive plate appearances against the Lions. She became the first Eagle to homer in consecutive plate appearances since Shannon Smith did so at UVA Wise on March 13, 2021.
