Jefferson City, Tenn. – The No. 19 Lenoir-Rhyne Softball Team (43-9, 20-2) won the 2016 SAC Regular Season Championship outright with a doubleheader sweep of Carson-Newman (29-19, 14-8), 1-0 and 4-3, Saturday at the Vickee Kazee-Hollifield Complex.

Game One – Lenoir-Rhyne 1,
Carson-Newman 0
Lenoir-Rhyne senior pitcher Maryann Hoskins (Havelock, N.C.) (16-6) pitched a three-hitter and struck out seven batters in leading the Bears to the victory.  The shutout was Hoskins' fifth of the year.

Lenoir-Rhyne junior first baseman Sydney Landreth (Disputanta, Va.) drew a bases-loaded walk – scoring freshman outfielder Erin Boone (Creedmoor, N.C.) – for the lone run of the game in the first inning.

Carson-Newman's Allison Webster (Charlestown, Ind.) suffered the loss despite allowing just one unearned run with six strikeouts in going the distance.

Box Score

Game Two – Lenoir-Rhyne 4, Carson-Newman 3
Lenoir-Rhyne sophomore outfielder Christina Walker (Roxboro, N.C.) broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the seventh inning with the game-winning, run-scoring single as the Bears completed the sweep.

Walker and Boone had three hits each while Walker drove in two runs in the victory.  Lenoir-Rhyne freshman Emily Kenley (Charlotte, N.C.) improved to 9-2 on the season after earning the complete game win. 

Carson-Newman, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead short-lived thanks to a three-run fifth inning, was led by Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) with two hits and two runs batted in.  Webster (19-11) suffered the loss for the Eagles.

Box Score

Lenoir-Rhyne will be the No. 1 seed in the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship and will take on eighth-seeded Anderson in the quarterfinal round on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.  Carson-Newman, the fourth seed, faces fifth-seeded Lincoln Memorial in the opening round on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.  The tournament takes place at Byerly Park in Hartsville, S.C.