Carson-Newman earns the three-seed for SAC Tournament, squares off with Catawba in opening round
ROCK HILL, S.C. – After picking up its most wins since the 2017 season, RV Carson-Newman (37-10, 16-6 SAC) secured the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 6 seed Catawba (26-23, 11-11 SAC) in the first round on Saturday and Sunday.
ROCK HILL, S.C. – After picking up its most wins since the 2017 season, RV Carson-Newman (37-10, 16-6 SAC) secured the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 6 seed Catawba (26-23, 11-11 SAC) in the first round of the South Atlantic Conference Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
The Eagles had locked up a top-three finish in their penultimate doubleheader against Emory & Henry. However, they needed the dust to settle to see who their opponent would be after falling in both games to SAC Regular Season Champions Lenoir-Rhyne on the final day.
Entering the final weekend, Catawba, E&H and Wingate were all competing for seeds six through eight. The Wasps split with Anderson on Sunday, locking them into the No. 8 seed. While Catawba and Wingate each finished 11-11 in conference play, Catawba held the tiebreaker after sweeping the Bulldogs during the regular season.
In the regular season, C-N swept the doubleheader against Catawba when the two sides met on April 9th in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Carson-Newman outscored Catawba 27-7 across the two games today, tallying 31 total hits.
The Eagles took an early lead in game one and sailed smoothly to the win, 12-2, before responding to Catawba's comeback bid with an emphatic eight-run third, carrying them to a 15-5 victory in the second half of the twin bill.
It was the only time this season that the Eagles won via a run-rule in both contests.
Grace Gregory (White House, Tenn.) in game one and Macauley Bailey (Cross Plains, Tenn.) in the second game had home runs. Across the two games, Gregory went 5-for-7 with 6 RBI, while Addie Saunders (Radford, Va.) was 5-for-8 with 4 RBI. In total, seven Eagle hitters recorded multi-RBI games and 12 multi-hit outings. In game one, the pitching limited Catawba to three hits, tied for the lowest amount allowed all season.
This weekend will be the first time since April 18th, 2013, that Carson-Newman and Catawba collide in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament. The Indians won that meeting 4-1.
Saturday's contest is set for a 2:00 p.m. start, with Sunday slated for 1:00 p.m. first pitch in Jefferson City, Tennessee, at the Vickee-Kazee Hollifield Softball Complex. Fans can watch the game on FloSports with a subscription, listen on cneagles.com/live or watch the In The Booth feed on the Carson-Newman Eagle Sports Network YouTube channel.
